Journey
by Rire
Summary: Revamped version of Quest. Sequel to Blitz. The pairs' lives continue. Rated for violence later on. UxY OxZ JxA
1. Chapter 1

"Zephyr? You home?" Odd called, closing the door behind him as he sifted through the mail. There was a thunder at the other end of the apartment, then she came flying into him, knocking him over and sending the mail fluttering in the air.

"Sure am," She laughed, kissing his cheek before letting him and gather up the mail.

"I give you a nine. You didn't stick your landing but the kiss was a nice touch," He joked, picking up a hand-addressed envelope. "Hey, here's one from Jeremie and Aelita." He slit open the envelope messily, unfolding the letter and reading silently before handing it to his waiting girlfriend.

"Hey, there's a picture here too," Zephyr noted, shaking the envelope she'd retrieved off the floor until a Polaroid fell into her hand.

"Awww, he's beautiful," Zephyr sighed, gazing into the picture.

"Lemme see," Odd sat next to her on the couch sharing the view of the photo, which on the bottom read:

"Bryce Belpois, born April third, 2005," Along with his weight, length, and exact time of birth.

"He's got his mom's eyes." Odd smiled.

"And his dad's face," Zephyr looked up at her boyfriend who was still swooning and smiling dreamily over the picture of Aelita and Jeremie's son.

"You want one, don't you?" She teased. Odd snapped out of his reverie to look at her, a little confused.

"Want a what?"

"A kid, you goof. You know you like children." Zephyr reappeared from the kitchen where she'd magneted the Polaroid to the refrigerator. She fell on him, head in his lap.

"Kids are great," His dreamy tone faded into something akin to pity as he stroked her hair, "But we're not married."

"Not to mention I'm barren," Zephyr rolled over on her back and he sighed.

"Don't look at it like that, babe. You know there's a way," He was cut off by her getting up and turning slightly away from him.

"No way. We discussed this. There's not a chance in the world I'd do that. It'd be your kid and the donor's kid and I'd just be some shell, a host for nine months. You know I can't do that."

"Oh, you know I'd never make you do that," He consoled, putting an arm around her shoulders and placing his lips to her head. "Are you sure that there's no chance in the world you can conceive naturally?"

"Positive." She answered shortly, though not angrily. "Our only choice is adoption."

"See? We still got a chance," He said, leaning back and bringing her with him. Zephyr picked up the rest of the mail, dismissing the earlier subject to toss away credit card scams and offers of useless gadgets. "Man, how many things do they send to us? Can't they catch a hint?" She flashed her confidant a smile but he knew she was troubled.

"Zeph…"

"Don't apologize, Love. It's just me." She assured. "Now this one here is insane…"

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Odd gulped. Never had he known this level of mortal fear. Everyone faces this degree of terror in this lives, for different reasons and at different times. Zephyr was asleep, collapsed after an exhausting day at work. Odd had gotten her to stay awake by turning the television on mute and taking turns making up different voices to _The Golden Girls_. But when 7 o'clock had rolled around and the set was turned off. He'd left her lean fully on the couch and was sitting cross-legged at her head as summer rain dripped down the windowpanes. The amber-eyed man fingered something in his pocket, then jumped lightly to the floor as a cat might, shaking her shoulder gently, very gently.

"Hey, wake up, sweetheart," He whispered. She jumped slightly but her tension relaxed under his voice and the sight of his face.

"Hmm?" She yawned, running a hand through his spiky golden hair.

"Wanna go for a walk?" He asked. Nodding, she shook the last traces of sleep from herself and followed him out the door.

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"Why are we walking in the rain?" She asked, eyes matching the sky in their marbled indecision. Odd shrugged nervously, hands in the pockets of his baggy jeans to hide their trembling.

"Remember our first kiss? That was in the rain," He didn't say it in a justifying or indignant manner, just a nostalgic, off beat in the way he said the words.

"Yeah. Aside from that, that day was miserable. But I got away from my father. Of course, that also meant I had to be away from you after we finally got together."

"Why did it take us so long anyway? To get together, I mean." A shrug was the answer he got.

"We were kids. We didn't understand until we hit puberty. It was good though, in the end. Lots of kids date as strangers and get their hearts broken."

"It sure was. You know what?" His voice was beginning to shake a little and he silently cursed it, because he didn't want her to catch on to his plan.

"What?"

"We're amazing, aren't we?" He asked, forgetting what he was going to say and pulling her close to him as he pulled his hands out of his pockets.

"We sure are," She answered, slipping her hand into his as they walked along, nearing the coffee shop. They didn't go in this time; Zephyr started to but Odd had pulled her arm gently so they sat against their usual wall, both of them soaked and tired. They'd both pulled full shifts and since the red head hadn't finished her nap, the fatigue was catching up to her. Odd was wired and shaking as if he'd just eaten about a pound of sugar and was crashing horribly in a downward spiral.

"Here, stand up," He whispered, and she tiredly did so, eyes half closed. He remained on both knees and his hand emerged from his pocket as his held his winning smile in place. The girl standing above him cocked her head in confusion, even as he held the ring out to her with both hands, as if in offering. It was simple; an emerald and a smaller sapphire adorned the ring, which was weaved as a Celtic knot would be.

"Will you marry me?" At this his girlfriend's dilated eyes snapped open and she stared at him, then tackled him once again as she often did, yelping in delight. She landed on top of him and kissed him.

"That's a 'yes' I suppose," He laughed, hand on her back as he pulled himself into an upright position and slid the ring onto her finger.

"My god you're wonderful," She whispered to him, then kissed the side of his face lightly. "But you don't taste different." He laughed with her and kissed her and kept kissing her, kept kissing this woman he'd loved since before he was a teenager, before he knew what love was. He kept kissing the one that had literally fallen back into his life yet they were able to pick back up right where they'd started. Finally they separated to find everything moving and flowing around them in perfect unison.

And she kissed him as well, kissed this wonderful man who had helped her up when others wanted nothing more than to knock her down. She kissed this man who had been her very best friend for what seemed like forever, and she couldn't-wouldn't-remember anything before. She showed this wonderful boyish guy who had saved her and had just offered her his protection for life her love for him.

They broke apart and, ignoring the stares they received from the small crowd that had gathered, headed back to their apartment, Odd's hand around her shoulders, her hand around his slim waist. The newly engaged pair didn't look back to see the frequenting poetry slammers scribbling down thoughts in notebooks or on napkins, their public show of affection the spark of inspiration of a rarely good poem to echo in the walls of the brick coffee shop. Their wonderful friend-love relationship was to be remembered briefly by the minds behind the marijuana eyes and then forgotten until their hands with scarred wrists turned to a page in a forgotten journal perhaps a decade later.

And those poetry readers, those writers would remember.

They would remember the day that they saw two people for once, unafraid.

For the first time, Odd Della Robbia and Zephyr Blitz were completely unafraid.

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**Author's Note: **

**Ok, for the anonymous reviwer who was slightly offended by the fact that Odd has no Italian characteristics, I mentioned in the very first chapter that he was half Norweigian, thus he could show more Norweigian traits. I went with the Italy/Norway roots because "Della Robbia" is an Italian surname meaning "Of the Robbia" and "Odd" is a Norweigian name meaning "point of a spear" or "point."Go visit the official site and you'll see that his surname is not of my making, so technically, my facts are straight(so you might want to talkt ot he people who make him a full blooded Italian instead of giving him some room for different traits.) Thank you. **


	2. Reunion part 1

Chapter 2: England

"Ah, so here we are in England," Odd announced almost nostalgically as they got off the bus about a block away from Ulrich and Yumi's flat. Odd was enjoying the strange looks he got; he was speaking in French, occasionally throwing in an Italian or Norwegian word. Zephyr had gotten them around easily, though she had had to repeat some things because of her accents.

"We sure are," She switched back into French with practiced ease. Both were light travelers and only had a book bag apiece, and as a result were walking the remainder of the way to Ulrich and Yumi's apartment near the Scottish border. They lived in the city of Stranraer. It was an old and traditional city, suiting the couple that lived there presently.

"Here it is!" Odd cried in triumph, reaching the building of the friends he hadn't seen in 6 years, and the ones Zephyr hadn't seen in 10.

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Ulrich and Yumi Stern had adapted wonderfully to British culture. Their French accents were replaced with British, complete with slang. Yumi's ebony eyes had not known sadness or tears in a long time; she was fortunate enough to have a happy marriage.

The pair lived comfortably in downtown Stranraer, Yumi as a Japanese teacher at the local primary school and Ulrich as a successful lawyer. How cliché it was that they were both sipping cups of tea when a knock came at their door. Almost instantaneously two small streaks darted towards the door. Right in front of it they halted, all confidence gone. Yumi smiled and rolled her eyes at her husband, getting up to answer the door. Ulrich was too immersed in the futbol game to notice anything until his son came up to him.

"What are you watching, Daddy?" He asked in his cute British accent. Ulrich smiled into his son's chocolate eyes and placed a hand on the top of his mouse brown hair as he explained soccer strategies.

"I was going to be on that team, Arnold. See that person there?" He pointed to a young man on the screen, who rushed forward and slammed his cleated foot into the ball, driving it past the goalkeeper. Arnold nodded. "That was the position I played in high school." Ulrich's reverie was cut drastically short as he heard his wife.

"Ulrich, Odd and Zephyr are here!" Ulrich stood, placing his three-year-old son on the ground to wander over to his twin sister Ari, who had her mother's jet hair and her father's glinting green eyes. He joined his wife at the door, face wreathed in smiles.

"Oddball, you haven't changed a bit!" He cried, pulling his friend into a full two-armed hug.

"Well, Mr. Red coat, you have!" His amber-eyed friend laughed, "Yumi, you let your hair grow! And you're not wearing black! Goth Girl is gone!"

"Very observant, Odd," Yumi chuckled, tousling Odd's hair.

"'Ello, Poppet," Zephyr joked, earning a squeal and a hug from Yumi and a hug from Ulrich.

"Wow, you've changed," Ulrich remarked. He had a right to say so; she'd grown over half a foot since he'd seen her last. Her dark red hair was a little longer, though not as long as Yumi's, and her voice had matured, though it still sounded boyish and husky.

"So have you two," Odd remarked as they went inside to sit down in the living room. Ulrich's walk was slightly plagued with a limp as he turned off the television set. His chocolate hair hung slightly in front of his green eyes, the orbs that hadn't dulled a bit since their boyhood. He was handsome and still had retained his athletic body type through physical therapy and workouts that didn't require too much power from his legs.

Yumi's hair was longer now, to her waist. Her slanted almond eyes sparkled as they always had and her skin was still a creamy white; this combination earning many catcalls from construction workers and bypassing perverts, much to Ulrich's dismay.

Their five-year-old twins had inherited the good looks of their parents. Ari took after her father in that she adored soccer and wasn't so good at school. She'd also gotten his green eyes, slightly slanted like her mother's and contrasting her jet hair. She was competitive and brooding, and her parents feared both for her social life and her teenage years. Ari was bright, no quite, as much as her brother, but she didn't show it out of shyness.

Arnold was more like Yumi. He liked watching sports more than he liked playing them, and already he was being recommended for the gifted program at the school both children attended. He wasn't a braggart but still was extremely proud of his grades. His face was shaped like Ulrich's, and he had his dad's shaggy hair and his mother's brown eyes. Arnold was outgoing, friendly, and obedient, thus relieving his parents' burden.

"So, you two have made out well, I see," Yumi noted the engagement rings on both their fingers as she sipped a cup of coffee the evening after they arrived. The twins were drawing on spare pieces of computer paper as they group waited for the arrival of Jeremie, Aelita, and Bryce.

"Life's not too bad," Odd agreed, placing a hand on Zephyr's knee.

"Even if your name _is _an adjective," She laughed, elbowing her blond boyfriend. He rolled his eyes.

"So how far are you guys in your…relationship?" Ulrich asked, raising his strong black coffee to his lips. He was craving one of his strong German beers but knew how mangled he'd be after his guest was through with him.

"Roommates," They replied in unison. Yumi's ebony eyebrows shot up and her husband had to spit his coffee back into its cup, coughing a few times.

"How close is 'roommates'?" Yumi asked, seeing as Ulrich was unable to express the thought.

"We're getting married," Zephyr reminded, both defending them and telling them what they wanted to know. "Neither of us have any STDs. Plus it's not like I'm going to end up pregnant anyways."

Silence chilled to room as all the other adults turned to look at her clouded face. Odd gave her knee a squeeze but she didn't quite feel it. He gulped. He was the only one who knew besides her Belgian foster family that she was barren.

"What?" Ulrich had gotten over his coffee and set it down on the table, glancing at his children. They were still occupied with their drawing and hadn't noticed anything amiss.

"I think you guys can figure it out. You're a lawyer, Ulrich, and you're a psychologist, aren't you, Yumi?" Zephyr said coldly. Yumi was about to reply and Odd was ready to jump to her defense(though she didn't quite need it) when the doorbell rang.

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I decided to end it there both because it's long and because I know I needed to get another chapter up. So, enjoy!


	3. Reunion part 2

Chapter 3: Reunion part 2

"That was close," Zephyr said, sighing as she flopped next to Odd in one of the guest rooms in Ulrich and Yumi's flat.

"Yeah," he laughed, "A little too close. You okay?" He asked, wrapping his arms around her and nuzzling his face into her neck.

"Of course." Zephyr replied, leaning back on his bare chest, "It was actually kind of funny." Odd laughed as he remembered the looks on the faces of their friends.

"The looks on their faces were priceless," He chuckled before kissing her neck. She turned and kissed his lips and tousled his hair.

When the doorbell rang a blushing Yumi and Ulrich had gotten up to answer it a little too quickly. Zephyr had actually burst out laughing, a break in her previous fridgid glare. Odd had laughed with her, but they immediately stopped when the married couple entered the room, making idle conversation by saying that a neighbor was at the door to ask them something about the rent.

Zephyr was thinking, her mind racing nervously despite the jet lag. There was another reason they had come to England. Tomorrow Jeremie, Aelita, and Bryce would arrive and the day after she and Odd would travel to nearby southern Scotland. There was an adoption agency there to interview the couple. If they met the criteria, the agency would see which child would be compatible with them. If there was a match, then all would be well and she and Odd's dream would become reality. If not, then they would try another agency and another until they found a child, Odd had promised. Sometimes she absolutely loathed herself because Odd really loved kids; she could see his face light up whenever he talked to Ari or Arnold. She couldn't give him one of his own, one of her own. She couldn't fix the mistakes her parents or Odd's parents had made by raising their own kid right. Odd was good with kids. It made sense; he had 3 younger siblings, all of which he'd helped his mother raise.

"Odd?" She whispered into the dark abyss that was the dark English night. There was no reply except his soft snoring kicking in near her ear.

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"Jeremie! Aelita!" Yumi yelled, ushering the brainy duo inside. In his arms Jeremie held his son and Aelita her bag as well as Jeremie's. Bryce was asleep but already you could see he had his father's angel soft blond hair .

"Well if it isn't Mr. And Mrs. Einstein!" Odd joked with a smile in his eyes as well as on his broad face. "And little junior Einstein!" Odd's heart melted as the one-year-old yawned and opened his dusty green eyes, which were obviously inherited from his mother. The small boy smiled and reached out a hand to put his hand on Odd's face and laugh. Odd smiled.

"Hi, Bryce," Odd whispered in his baby voice, letting the small boy tug gently on his hair. Zephyr stood leaning on the doorframe; no one had noticed she was missing yet. A sad smile graced her face and a single tear coursed its way over the scars on her face. She could never give that to Odd or to herself.The woman's thoughts were interrupted as Aelita came and found her, throwing her arms around her friend she hadn't seen in a long, long time.

"Zephyr! You look good!" Aelita compliemented. "Why are you crying?"

"Huh? Oh that…I yawned. I couldn't sleep well last night."

"Wonder why?" Ulrich joked quietly to Yumi. The couple laughed and Odd rolled his eyes at them, but he knew something was off. He dismissed it, however, when Jeremie set his son down and the boy toddled over to wrap his arms around Odd's leg. Once again his heart melted. The gang was all together again, and everything was okay. And it laid his heart at peace.

Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, Zephyr, Ulrich, Yumi, Arnold, Ari, and Bryce were sitting around the family room eating dinner; Ulrich and Yumi's table was not by a long shot big enough for the crowd of 9. Yumi had been fortunate enough to have the day off but Ulrich was dog tired, almost falling asleep over his uneaten food.

Jeremie hadn't let go of his glasses, but they were of the square wire framed variety, bringing out his hazel eyes more successfully. His blond hair had darkened a little but it was still angel soft and short, cut closer to his head than before. Presently he sported jeans and a blue and white striped polo shirt.

Aelita's hair was still dyed a light pink, but it was longer; about shoulder length and pulled back. Her bangs framed her delicate face beautifully. She wore a green skirt and a tight-ish magenta skirt that extended to her knees. Her green eyes were cloudy. She leaned into Jeremie and looked at Odd and Zephyr. Their empty plates were in the sink and Odd's head was on Zephyr's lap. His amber eyes closed as she stroked his hair soothingly.

"Are you guys ready for tomorrow?" Aelita asked. Odd opened his eyes and got up.

"We sure are," He repleied, excitement in his voice. The man became animated but his voice didn't rise; Arnold and Ari had fallen asleep on the floor and Bryce had followed suit in the room his parents were staying in.

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" Ulrich asked.

"We want a girl," Zephyr answered.

"And maybe later down the road a boy," Odd continued, "But we'll be happy with whatever the agency decides we're compatible with.

"Why'd you decide to adopt?" Jeremie asked, amazingly still oblivious.

"I can't have kids," Zephyr answered, a little more sadness in her voice than before. Odd had gotten up to help Ulrich take Arnold and Ari to their room and Jeremie went to check on Bryce. They'd sensed that Zephyr needed female comfort right now.

"How'd you find out?" Yumi asked cautiously.

"In Belgium my adopted sister got her period and I was oblivious. She finally made her parents take me for a fertility test. The results came out negative. And that was that."

"Is Odd upset?" This came from Aelita.

"He doesn't act like it, but anyone can tell he wants a kid really badly," Zephyr looked down the hall as if at Odd.

"Has it come between you two at all?" Yumi asked.

"No. In fact, I think that this wanting to adopt brought us closer together,"

"I hope it has," Yumi replied, "because usually you have to be married."

"We're engaged. But we'll be married by the time they find a kid."

"So what did Odd's parents say?" Aelita laughed with her question.

"We haven't told them yet. After we get back from France they're coming to visit us. Since Odd works at the school they can stay in a couple extra boarding rooms."

Aelita and Yumi exchanged a worried look, one that Zephyr's pale eyes didn't catch.

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"So Odd," Jeremie asked, "When did you find out?" The guys were sitting in the room Jeremie and Aelita were staying in.

"The night we first got back together."

"And you still married her?" Ulrich laughed, just a little.

"Well, yeah," Odd defended, agitation rising, "She's not some vessle to pass my bloodline along, who do you think I am, my father?"

"Calm down, Odd, no one thinks that," Jeremie hated verbal arguments, and he was afraid his son would wake up if the voices of his friends continued to escalate. Odd slipped back into his childhood for a moment, folding his arms and glaring icily at Ulrich.

"Either way I still love her. There's just…something about the way she…"

"Talks?" Jeremie interjected dreamily, thinking of Aelita.

"Looks at you?" Ulrich guessed, invisioning Yumi as he said so.

"It's the way she smiles at me, even when she's not smiling. It's amazing, the things her eyes tell me." There was a collective sigh from the three men as they thought of their wives, or in Odd's case, fiancée.

"So, what do you think your dad will do?" Jeremie asked, breaking all of them out of their reveries.

"Yeah, the subject is bound to come up," Ulrich reminded. Odd sighed.

"I hope he keeps his mouth shut for once. If he doesn't, I don't know. I really don't know."

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**Ok, a bad to end it, but it was the closest break in the storyline. If anyone is into fanart and has some spare time, I'd LOVE an Odd/Zephyr pic. Unfortnuately I can't pay you but I can…looks around give you a brownie? **


	4. Fading Chance

Chapter 4: Fading Chance

The first thing Od took note of as they entered the waiting room at the adoption agency was that they were the only couple there that was not showing off pictures of children, or in other cases, grandchildren. Zephyr reached down and gave his hand a light squeeze. He wished she'd held on to it, but she didn't. He found himself missing the feeling of her skin on his. It was comforting and safe, a familiar feeling that he loved.

The other couples stared at them as if they didn't belong. Despite Odd's decision to simply spike his hair sans the purple gel and wear blue and black instead of purple, the pair could feel the eyes of the other prospective parents questioning. They sat down next to a couple in their mid thirties whose posture and facial expressions told Odd and Zephyr that they were nosy and confident.

"So why are you here? Husband not performing?" The woman laughed as she leaned over.

"No," Zephyr answered coldly, "I don't have the same problem as you." The lady turned away in disgust, face reddening, then after a moment turned back.

"So why are you here?" She asked.

"Because," She answered bitterly, "I…That's really no business of yours."

"You know, you probably won't make it. My husband and I have adopted 4 kids so far and it's tough. They examine every little thing you do."

Odd stared at the two women conversing in English. Zephyr's voice sounded a little different and it bothered him that he couldn't understabd her.

"Giving away my personal health information to a stranger is not going to impact their choice." The Irish native bit off coldly, sitting on the other side of Odd.

"What went on there, a cat fight?" Odd joked in French. Zephyr sighed, and it seemed to switch her languages.

"No, just some stuck up woman trying to discourage us. These people act like it's a competition. It's sick."

"Did you ever see the other people who wanted you?" Odd asked, wary that's he would explode. Instead she looked at him and she looked very much like she was a lost child once again.

"I think those people from Belgium were pretty much the only people that wanted me. See, when you're adopting a kid and you have set conditions people don't normally want older ones. Most of the time they're moody and aggressive, especially if they've been abused."

There was nothing in the world for Odd to say.

"Zephyr Blitz and Odd Della Robbia?" A woman called in her shrill, bird like English accent. The couple got up and stared at the angled woman before them, dead mahogany eyes staring blankly at her clipboard.

"It's you," Zephyr laughed and the woman looked up, shock and almost disgust on her face.

"Well," She said in French, so nobody else would understand, "I haven't seen you two since you nearly lost your virginity to each other in that parking lot." And she lead them down the hall to an interview room briskly, heels clacking in a business like manner on the tiled floor. "Zephyr, if you will go into the room on your right, and Odd, the one across that, please."

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"So, let's start with the basics," The interviewer broke the starched formal silence the blank white room seemed to hold. A few pictures painted messily by foster kids shortly before they found new homes were tacked to the strips of corkboard in the room. The interviewer's face was soft and kind, illuminated by a sincere smile and honey colored eyes. "Where were you born?"

"Southern Ireland, near Dublin," Zephyr answered, looking her straight in the eye. Her posture and voice held pride.

"Okay…" She paused as she scribbled on the clipboard she held. "What were your parents' names?"

"Allil Rankin and Jack Blitz." The woman's honey colored eyes never left the clipboard as she fired question after question.

"Annual income?"

"Wedding date?"

"Childhood?" Zephyr paused.

"Excuse me?" She asked, putting her index and middle fingers to her temple, trying to steady her breathing. It all hinged on this question.

"Your childhood, Ms. Blitz. What it was like."

"Oh," She sighed and took a deep breath, "My mother died when I was nine years old. We were living in Montana then. When I was eleven we moved to France where I went to Kadic. There I met my friends, Odd included. Jack liked to drink a lot. Every time I came home I prayed that," She ran a hand through her hair nervously, trting to stop its shaking, "That he wouldn't be there. Sometimes he was out, drinking with his buddies or buying alcohol or playing poker. Other times he was passed out on the sofa and I'd get by him, but mostly he was there, awake and swigging at a bottle of whiskey, his favorite. I still remember the way the smell of it burned."

"And then what happened?" The interviewer asked. Zephyr closed her eyes, blinking out a tear or two, and continued without opening her eyes, allowing herself to go back to a time when her scars were fresh wounds and when she had been just a scared little girl.

"He'd hit me. He'd hit me with his fists. Sometimes he'd take the belt to me. His favorite was the whiskey bottle. Most of the time it still had alcohol in it and it would get in ym cuts and burn. If I screamed I'd get hit more. He'd pick me up with one hand. He was strong and I was small. Then he'd put me against the wall and hit me with his free and or whatever he could reach with it. When he was finished he'd Throw me on the floor and send me sprawling with a kick to the ribs. Then he'd leave until he was drunk enough to do it again."

"How long did this go on?"

"Pretty much all my life, starting when I was about 4 or 5."

"What did your mother do when this happened?" Again Zephyr paused, opening her eyes and replying nostalgically,

"She'd sing to me. She never tried to stop it but she'd comfort me until…"

"Zephyr?"

"Yes?"

"How exactly did your mother die?" Zephyr bit her bottom lip.

"My dad shot her," She whispered.

"I see," She scribbled more down on her notepad. "You do realize that abuse runs in cycles, don't you?"

"It stops with me," Zephyr answered with cold determination.

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"Well, we better be going," Odd stated, regret tinging his voice.

"You guys watch France for us, okay?" Yumi joked, punching Odd lightly in the shoulder.

Hugs were exchanged and teary goodbyes said, and Odd and Zephyr boarded the plane from England to France.

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It'd been about two months since the interview in Scotland. Odd was walking home from work. He was going into "little kid mode," hoping and wishing to the sky that today would be _the _day. He rushed home, taking the steps two at a time, almost leaving his stomach behind. The apartment door was unlocked, and as he burst through it, studied Zephyr's face as she sat on the couch, envelope on the coffee table.

"We got a letter today," She whispered.


	5. Letter

"So what's it say?" Odd asked, standing on the other side of the coffee table, hands in his pockets to stop their shaking.

"I didn't open it." Zephyr stood, running a hand through her hair and sighing. "I don't know if I can." Odd gazed at her as she leaned almost nonchalantly against the wall, staring out of the windowed door leading out to small concrete balcony big enough for only two chairs.

"What d'you mean? This is our dream in this envelope!" He picked it up and hit it with the back of his hand for emphasis, his eyes never off of her.

"They say abuse runs in cycles. What if I snap? What happens then? I'm not going to chance a kid like my father chanced me."

"This is different," Odd insisted, still holding the envelope.

"How the hell is this any different?" She hissed, whirling around. Odd took a step back; her eyes held a fire that he'd seen only once before.

"You know how it's different," Odd reminded. You don't drink, and I don't think you have any anger problems. You're starting to change my mind about that, so calm down." His arms were folded but he remained calm.

She sighed, one hand in her hair again, the other on her hip. She wore an old t-shirt and a pair of boys' athletic shorts. The subtle muscles in her legs relaxed. "Sorry."

"Stop apologizing when you have flashbacks, it's annoying." He laughed.

"Okay, okay," She smiled, sitting back down on the couch. He sat next to her, holding one end of the envelope, the other end extended towards his fiancée. "Wait a sec," She barely touched his jeaned knee with her fingers. "Odd…if we don't get accepted…"

"Then we'll try again. And again and again until we find one." He informed reassuringly.

"No…That wasn't what I was going to say. If they don't think we're going to be good enough parents then…I talked to Aelita. She'd be happy to donate." Another deep breath. "I'm willing to do the artificial thing."

She'd taken hold of the envelope and now there was a silence that threatened to shatter and collapse around them.

"You're wonderful," Odd said, leaning to kiss and hug her. She loved him so much that she was fully willing to go through the most intense pain They separated and Odd reaffirmed his grip on the creamy white sturdy paper. "Well, it's not going to open itself."

Each ripped one end of the envelope off so that the fruitful middle fell to the ground, spilling the contents out onto the worn surface of the upholstery. The only sound was heavy breathing and the ticking of the wall clock in the kitchen as they picked up the paper, leaning closer together to read it. Their voices melded into one as they read aloud.

"Dear Odd Della Robbia and Zephyr Blitz," It read. "Based on the extensive interviews, tests, and paperwork we have studied intensely, we have determined that your personalities, financial and mental situations, and environment are suitable for 1"

The name was in bold, all capital letters.

"Aiden Collins."

There was a full 3x4 color photograph included. It showed a five-year-old girl with dark, bright azure eyes framed by wire framed oval glasses and light coppery red hair. It was stick straight and just past her average sized shoulders. Her face was brightened by an unstaged smile. On the letter there was some information about her. They leaned against the couch as though connected by an invisible thread.

"Oh God," Zephyr repeated over and over and over, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God," Tears fought their way out of her closed eyes and slipped down her face to drip off of her upwardly tilted chin. Odd didn't wipe them away both because he didn't see them; his eyes were also shut; and because he knew that they were, for the first time, tears of pure happiness, relief. She let him lean on her and rest his head on her shoulder, his breathing pattern shaky. He laid her head on his, the flow of tears gone. Once again her eyes closed and she kissed his cheek before falling asleep. Odd, however, remained awake, letting the feeling sink in as he relaxed because of Zephyr's regulated breathing.

He finally had a daughter. He had a child that he'd dreamed of since he and Zephyr had decided to get married. The jealousy that had plagued his heart whenever he saw his friends and their kids melted away into a smile, a boyish follish smile, as he, too, fell asleep. Before sleep took him over the edge into the dark waters of dreams good and bad, he whispered into the large room,

"Aiden Collins Della Robbia."


	6. The Inlaws

Greetings, loyal readers!

Sorry for the unscheduled hiatus. I had an episode where I fell off a horse and kind of got kicked as he ran the other way, spooked at a wild turkey, of all things. Nothing major, just a ruptured blood vessel next to my ovary.

Anyway, this chapter took a long time. First I had to compose Odd's family. Sorry if it looks like all of the fathers in this storyline are mean, but that's just how it turned out. After the characters were laid out I had to construct the dialogue and setting and blah blah blah. So, here you go. The next chapter is in production and will be coming soon!

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"Will you sit down already? You're not helping," Zephyr spoke through her battered nerves to Odd as he paced the floor in nervous anticipation.

"Sorry," He muttered sourly and settled on the couch beside his soon-to-be wife and fiddling with his own hands.

"And you said there was nothing to be worried about." Zephyr laughed, but it shook with nervousness as she proceeded to tie and untie her shoe.

"Well I lied," Odd grumbled. Zephyr swallowed hard and tried to breathe slowly. She'd been calmed down until Odd had started having second thoughts about how much his family would love her. He hadn't voiced them aloud, but his actions spoke clearly to his girlfriend, who was fine-tuned in reading him.

Odd had become disinterested in fidgeting and was satisfied simply by watching Zephyr. His anxiety was eased and he allowed a smile to shyly show itself.

"Will you stop?" He teased, taking her hand from her shoelaces to entwine his fingers with hers. He kissed her soundly on the mouth, his smile spread to her.

"Sorry, still nervous," She admitted, her smile sheepish while his remained subtle and caring.

"Don't be," He murmured to her, letting the fingers of his free hand comb their way through her long, straight hair.

Zephyr jumped at the knocking on the apartment door. Odd put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, both to encourage her and because he was amused. They walked from the couch to the door together.

"You okay?" Odd asked. She only nodded in response as she shakily reached for the doorknob.

The door opened to the inside to reveal Odd's family. Zephyr hadn't ever had any siblings and was thus slightly surprised at the generous greeting they gave each other. Odd had switched rapidly from French to Italian, and because the two languages were similar the Irish native could understand a lot of the conversation. It consisted mostly of "Hello" and "How are you?".

Odd had four siblings, two boys and two girls, and he was right in the middle. The oldest was a stereotypical jock-type boy named Eric, about thirty years old. His hard, dark eyes flashed behind his dark hair. Muscles bulged slightly from under his t-shirt. Odd greeted him less warmly than he did the others. Eric looked at Zephyr with a disapproving scowl and was quiet except to introduce himself and shake her hand roughly.

The second oldest child, Rose, was about twenty-eight. Unlike her older brother she was blonde and blue-eyed, chatty with a warm smile, going past Zephyr's outstretched hand to hug her. Zephyr was taken aback by this display of affection between strangers but it wasn't all that unpleasant.

The younger siblings, Emily and Omri, were both brunettes with blue eyes. Odd introduced them as twins; they were sixteen years old. They didn't have a lot to say, but they weren't unfriendly either, giving bright smiles and attentive faces.

Zephyr liked Odd's mother immediately, though she seemed timid and submissive. She was Norwegian, petite with naturally messy blonde hair framing a broad and rugged face in which two dark blue eyes were set. She smiled graciously and was plagued by an expression of fatigue from raising five children.

Odd's father, however, was a different story. He was rigid in his eyes and handshake, dismissing Zephyr with disdain and doing both the same way. He shared his hard dark eyes with his eldest son and his black hair was just turning gray around the temples. He was tall and foreboding, the kind of person that struck Zephyr as the type to have their nose in the air.

She knew it was going to be a very long visit.

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"So, Odd, what are you doing for a living nowadays?" Asked Rose casually, spinning the spaghetti Odd's mom had helped Zephyr make.

"I'm a physics teacher at Kadic," He answered after swallowing. His family had been quizzing him on how he was doing as an individual, and Odd's tension returned when Rose turned to Zephyr.

"So, Zephyr, that's Greek, right?"

"Yes, it is," She answered from next to Odd. She wasn't eating much.

"But your last name, that's German, isn't it?" Eric cut in, smiling coldly.

"Yes."

"But you look Irish," Mr. Della Robbia commented, almost in protest.

"Well, yes, I am. See, my father was Greek and German, and my mother was full Irish."

"_anima sporcata(1),_" Eric laughed cruelly. Odd stiffened.

"Eric!" Mrs. Della Robbia admonished, slapping the back of his hand with her fork.

"What, it's true!" He defended. Rose glared at him and once again turned to her future sister-in-law.

"So, when will we meet your parents?" She asked genuinely.

"You didn't _tell _them?" She hissed, barely audible, to Odd. She turned back to Rose, fascinated by her own fork.

"Um…you won't get to meet them." She said quietly. "My mother died when I was very young. My father…" She felt a squeeze on her knee and looked at Odd, who smiled reassuringly, renewing her strength. "My father was arrested for domestic violence when I was fifteen."

The room was still for a few seconds.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry," Rose apologized. "I didn't have any idea."

"It's alright." Zephyr ended the subject politely. Odd's dad didn't miss a beat.

"Odd tells me you two are adopting a girl from Scotland," He began. "Do you plan on giving Odd children of his own?"

Great.

"Uh…" She gulped, "First of all, I wouldn't give children to Odd, we'd share them." She defended quietly, "And besides, I'm barren."

More silence.

"_senza valore(2)_," Eric scoffed. Odd's dad scowled at Zephyr.

"Why in the hell are you marrying her? Eric's right, she is-"

"Angelo…" Mrs. Della Robbia warned, putting an hand on his arm to make him sit back down.

"Odd, can I see you alone for a minute?" Zephyr asked, leading him from the table close to tears.

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Zephyr shut the door to their bedroom behind them and leaned on it, arms folded, while she kept a steady, serious gaze on Odd.

"I'm sorry, Zephyr, I didn't know that they would be like this." Odd apologized, sitting on the edge of the bed. She came to sit beside him.

"You know how much that hurt, don't you? They just came in to my _home_ and _insulted _me in a language I don't understand. This isn't supposed to be a "are you fit for my kid" kind of thing. We're getting married in a week and I didn't know I'd be marrying them, too."

"Look, I'm sorry Eric and my dad were horrible, but you're marrying me, remember? Sweet, loveable, adorable, sexy me," He reminded, smiling winningly at her and she tousled his-for once-combed hair.

"Yeah, you're right. So what'd Eric say to me in Italian anyway?"

"I'll tell you later." Odd dismissed, running a hand over her face, wiping a tear away in the process. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It was a lot to take, is all."

"I'll talk to Eric and my dad. They're just old-fashioned. They'll come around." He kissed the top of her head as they left the room.

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After dinner, just before Odd's family left for their hotel, Odd pulled his older brother and father aside.

"Look, guys, I really don't like the way you treated Zephyr."

"And…?" Eric raised a dark eyebrow.

"That kid's been through Hell and high water and she came back _alive._ She deserves respect and all you did, _Dad_, was ask her questions about her bloodlines and fertility."

"So? Are you getting fresh with me?" Asked his father, raising his voice slightly.

"No, but I'm not looking for purple blood and purebred children in my marriage. I'm in love with her. That's why we're getting married. And Eric, did you have to say those things? Did you really have to hurt her like that?"

"If she's survived so much she can live through words," Eric said passively.

"And you can survive in Lyon until the wedding. Good night." He said, pointing to the door, amber eyes smoldering.

"Just remember, Odd," His father advised distastefully on his way out behind his son, "Love dies."

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Okay, so that was Odd's family. Sorry if his younger siblings never had any dialogue but they'll probably have another role in a later story.

So, here are the Italian words Eric used. Nice guy, huh?

(1)-_anima sporcata- _Italian meaning "soiled blood."

(2)-_senza valore- _Italian meaning "without worth; worthless"

This chapter moved a little fast, but I'm a little rusty, so here you go.


	7. For Once

Okay, guys, I'm on a roll. This chapter is supposed to highlight the aftermath of Zephyr's whole ordeal; mental problems and such. This is before they get married and after the whole in-law incident.

Chapter 7: For Once 

It was a warm, dark night that swirled around Lyon the night five days before Odd and Zephyr were to be married. Their room was dark, filled with waves of Odd's ever-present snoring crashing in on each other.

Zephyr thrashed and spun, whimpering and crying. Cold sweat pooled itself around her body, making her shiver with cold and fright.

"Please," She moaned, "Leave me alone. Don't…" Her voice trailed off again and she continued to claw at and imaginary enemy in uncomfortable silence. Odd's snoring continued on, he blissfully unaware of his fiancée's plight.

Unaware, that is, until she sat straight up and stock still, a short scream separating two of her ragged gasps for air. His snoring stopped and he sat up rubbing his eyes in surprise and concern. The shape next to him was shivering and her sides heaved, labored by every breath. Zephyr's eyes almost glowed in the darkness, pupils dilated even when Odd switched on his bedside lamp. Her eyes were wide and searching, glazed with distance and animal-like fright.

Odd put and arm around her shoulders, smoothing her hair back from her soaked face.

"Zephyr? Zephyr, it's me, Odd." He murmured, giving her a firm but gentle shake. She looked at him, pleading eyes raking his face for comfort. Finding it, her breaths slowed and the misty barrier lifted from her eyes. Odd rubbed the back of her wet t-shirt and she swallowed, once, twice, to compose herself. Now she looked at him, breaths slower but unsteady, as if they might collapse. She buried her head in his chest and tried to speak. She wasn't crying, just quivering. She tried to speak, but no intelligible words came got past her lips.

"Sh, it's okay. I'm here now."

"It-he…he.." She stuttered.

"I know. I know." He whispered, removing his own t-shirt to wipe her face of sweat. He also dried off her arms and legs, dropping the shirt, now wet, on the floor when he was done. He frowned upon looking at her side of the bed; it too was saturated. As if making a decision he looked at her, kissed the top of her head, and leaned back, lying down with Zephyr still clinging to him, shaking.

"I'm not going to let anything hurt you. Remember the promise I made you?"

He felt her nod her head tiredly. He reached up and turned off the light, settling them into inky darkness once again.

"'Night, Zephyr," He smiled. She didn't answer and had stopped quivering, asleep from the exhaustion of fighting.

-----------------------------------

"That's the third time this week, Babe," Odd reminded, leaning against the counter and taking a sip of his coffee.

"Yeah, if you're keeping count," She muttered, looking at the table.

"Is it the same one?" He asked, coming to stand beside her.

"Yeah." Sunlight had found and banished the darkness and her nightmare.

"What happens?" He quizzed. She took a deep breath, and it rattling as if her lungs were coming loose.

"Jack comes back. I can't move. I'm trapped. I can't look away. God, Odd, there's so much blood. It's _your _blood, my blood, Jeremie's, Aelita's, Yumi's, Ulrich's blood. It's a huge pool, a lake. He's laughing at me, Odd. There's beer in the blood and I don't know why. I fight him as hard as I can but he's just too strong. He drowns me in that blood, Odd, and I can still hear that laughing, and then there's a gunshot. And that's when I wake up."

There were a few minutes of stunned silence.

"Well," Odd finally said, slowly, choosing his words carefully, "You have a psychiatrist appointment next week. Do you want to move it or do you think you can hang on till then?" Zephyr, tensed, dumped her cold coffee down the sink, rinsing the cup out but leaving it in the sink.

"You know, Odd, sometimes I really wish I didn't have to consider that. Just once I'd like to get a good night's sleep without being woken by nightmares. Sometimes I wish I could have kids. For once I'd like to just be _normal_."

"No, you don't" Odd said lightly, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist. "Besides, I love you just the way you are." She smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, now get off of me or you'll be late for work."

"Big incentive," He rolled his eyes and kissed her on the cheek before grabbing his laptop case and heading out the door.

"Man, good thing I have off today," Zephyr groaned, putting a hand on her forehead. A migraine was manifesting inside her skull. Sunlight wasn't helping and she was grateful she'd opted not to drink the coffee. She attempted to make her way to the bedroom but stopped suddenly, leaning against the wall.

Her head spun and whirled with nausea. Something black and ugly blocked her version and her breath came shallowly and quickly. Her knees buckled and she collapsed in a heap, tremors rattling her body in seizure-esque fashion. She blacked out just after seeing Jack's face. It was contorted with rage and his eyes were hard and still. The image vanished as quickly as it had come and Zephyr remained on the floor long after she stilled.

----------------------------------------------------

Zephyr pulled herself up off the floor, groggily and slowly shaking her head to clear it. Her migraine had abandoned her and she looked at the clock, which read 3:36. Still moving slowly, as though in a dream, she picked up the phone and punched in the memorized numbers. The other end of the line rang once, then once more. In the middle of the third ring, it was picked up.

"Hi, Dr. Chardeaux? Yeah, I need an emergency appointment. Why? Oh, I've been having nightmares and I think…I think I just had a seizure. Okay. Thank you. Bye." She hung up, in the same motion scribbling a note for Odd and grabbing her house key. She locked the apartment behind her and made the short walk to her psychiatrist's office.

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"Well, there appears to be nothing medically wrong with you. No change in blood pressure, cholesterol, no new medications, no new stress. Did you see or hear anything before you blacked out?" Dr. Chardeaux asked, looking at his patient over his spectacles. He was a tall, broad, bald man with concealing brown eyes and no smile below his mustache, but no malice in his gravelly voice.

"I saw my father very briefly. That was it. His eyes, face mostly." She shrugged.

"I'd say it was a flashback," He diagnosed, clicking his pen open and scribbling out a prescription form. "Here. This should stop the seizures and dull the severity and frequency of the nightmares. It works by blocking out that part of your memory."

"So I won't remember it at all?" She asked, raising a red eyebrow.

"Oh, no, you'll remember it, but it won't be as prominent in your subconscious mind. That's the part of your brain that's causing the episodes and the nightmares."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Doc." Then she remembered. "Are there any side effects?"

"Actually, there are only a few, and they're very minor. Your immune system might be a little bit weaker and you might not be as easily sexually aroused, but it won't effect your daily life that much at all. After you finish this round of pills we'll make another appointment and run some tests."

"Thanks, Dr. Chardeaux," She smiled, shaking his hand warmly and leaving the office, canceling her appoint previously set for next week with his secretary on the way out.

After her trip to the drugstore and the consumption of the first huge, green pill, she arrived home at exactly the same time as Odd; they met each other in the hallway.

"Zephyr? What's that?" He nodded to the paper bag.

"Here, I'll tell you inside," She unlocked the door and gestured to the empty apartment.

"Okay, so what is it?" Odd sat on the sofa, motioning for his fiancée to join him. She told him in detail about the episode and the resulting appointment and prescription."

"The insurance covered it," She finished.

"Man," He said, running a hand through his spiked hair. "I'm sorry I wasn't here," He apologized. She just ruffled his hair in response.

"Not your fault," She reminded, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. She moved to his mouth and kissed him there, smiling when he kissed back and deepened it. The kiss was raw and passionate. They stood to enter the bedroom.

'Difficult sexual arousal my ass," Zephyr thought, smiling to herself.


	8. Wedding

Sorry it's been a while, guys! Finals came up, as did a trip to North Carolina. Also the first week I was out of school I was privileged enough to help out at a horse show in Perry, Georgia. It was cool. But now I'm back.

This should finish nicely, and if I work diligently completed by this week or next. Probably 5 or 6 chapters to go. Thank all of you for your support!

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Chapter 8: Wedding

Odd hated his alarm clock at six in the morning, as all normal people do. This day, however, was special. First and foremost, it was a Saturday, and Odd liked to use his Saturdays for sleeping in. The incessant beeps ripped through the darkness his eyelids provided, and he hit the device blindly until it stopped. He sighed and rolled over on his back, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling. He knew Zephyr wasn't there; she was busy keeping the myth alive that it was bad luck for the groom and bride to see each other before the wedding. His eyes rolled and he looked over at her side of the bed. He could see the impression she'd left in the sheets; she apparently hadn't slept well due to nerves, just like him. On her empty pillow lay a small scrap of paper and a cluster of small purple flowers. Forget-me-nots. He picked up the paper groggily and skimmed the line, which was surprisingly legible even though it was written by his fiancée's tired handwriting, which wasn't the neatest even when she was fully awake. He allowed himself to smile.

I can't wait to marry you.

-Zephyr

Odd climbed out of bed and dressed. The wedding was at 9 in the morning in some garden place that didn't even have a name. He didn't like suits but he shuddered at how uncomfortable a dress must be. Almost as an afterthought, he let his hair spike up with just a touch of uncolored gel. Just before leaving the room he stuck one of the flowers in the inside of his tux's pocket. He took a deep breath and left his apartment to meet Jeremie and Ulrich.

The ceremony was small and simple. The audience was small. Odd's family sat on one side, Ulrich, Yumi, Ari, Arnold, Jeremie, Aelita, and Bryce sat on the other. A priest was there to make it official, but the bride and groom had written their own vows.

Odd was wearing his simple suit and tie. The shirt was white but he couldn't resist the urge to wear a purple tie. He grinned openly throughout the whole day, elated with himself and his bride.

Zephyr wore a simple white dress, devoid of lace and a veil. It was almost summer dress. It came to her knees and was made of a light material. The sleeves cut off at her shoulders, and she had decided to go barefoot.

Odd went first when the priest announced that it was time to read vows.

"Zephyr, I know a lot of people get cold feet or have doubts when they get married, and I want you to know that I don't feel that. I'm sure of this. I've been sure I've wanted you as part of my life since they day I met you. I promise to not just love you but to be in love with you. I promise that I will help you through everything you go through. I promise never to hurt you and to heal you when people do hurt you. I can't promise that I'll be the best husband the world ever saw, but I _can _promise you that I'm going to try. You'll never be just my wife or my lover or my roommate. You'll be my very best friend, forever." He finished with his signature winning smile, and he looked at the woman across from him, who was smiling but more shyly, bashfully. She cleared her throat and began her vows.

"Odd, when I was very young I made a wish. I wished for someone who would never leave me, never hurt me, for someone who would love me unconditionally for who I was. I made a wish and you came true. I know that sometimes, because of what I went through I'm not the easiest person to deal with. But you helped me. You always have and I know you always will. And I will do my best to help you. I may not be model-gorgeous or Jeremie-smart," The audience laughed, "And I may not be a purebred, but I'm myself, and you deserve that from someone. You deserve someone who isn't afraid to be who they are. I am grateful to you, and I promise to be my best, to be me, to pick you up when you trip, to defend you at all costs. I love you as a best friend, Odd. I'm in love with you as a husband, a lover, and a lifelong companion."

The priest did the "I do's" and told Odd he was allowed to kiss the bride. He almost froze, looking at her, and kept grinning like a fool. She smiled up at him.

"Well? Are you going to stare all day or are you going to kiss me?" She breathed, a laugh in her voice. He laughed as well, nervously, and bent down to kiss her as she leaned up. His lips met those of who was at first a girl he knew, then his best friend, then his crush, then his girlfriend, lover, fiancée, and now, his wife.

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They walked home from the ceremony, hand-in-hand. It was a gorgeous day; there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

"You know, we really should go somewhere someday," Zephyr remarked.

"Where do you want to go?" Odd asked, looking at her curiously. His wife shrugged.

"I don't know. I'd like to see Ireland again one day. I know we don't have the money right now, but eventually it would be a good thing, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Maybe next time we visit Yumi and Ulrich."

"Sounds good to me." Zephyr smiled, and breathed deeply.

"I really can't believe we're married," Odd laughed. "When we were kids I thought you'd be about the last person I'd end up being married to."

"Oh really?" She asked slyly, "Who was your first choice?"

"I don't remember," Here husband lied, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Yes you do. Who was it?"

"Fine. It was that Naomi girl, remember? The really skinny girl who dyed her hair bright red?"

"Why in the world would you marry _her_?" Zephyr wrinkled her nose and made a disgusted expression out of her face.

"Well, I was young and she was the prettiest girl in school. But that was before I had a crush on you."

"Nice save," Zephyr remarked. "It's a good thing you didn't marry her. She turned into a slut in high school, if I remember." Odd nodded.

"The second she got into ninth grade. So, who did you want to marry before you saw how adorable I was?"

"I didn't really have my mind set on anyone. Girls are different like that."

"Oh really? Different like how?"

"Well, we have standards, for one thing. Remember Herb? He threw himself at the feet of anyone who'd take him."

"Oh yeah? Well…uh…remember that one girl…"

And they talked the whole way home about the pathetic people they knew in high school. Zephyr managed to direct the attention away from Odd's counter-question. Eventually they reached their apartment began to see if married life felt any different, and if they had any regrets about the rings on their fingers.

--------------------------

Okay, I had to get something in! Aiden comes in the next chapter!


	9. Aiden

Chapter 9: Aiden 

Odd and Zephyr borrowed a car from their neighbors down the hall to go to the airport to pick up Aiden. Both of them had trouble sitting still on the airport's hard benches as they watched the passengers from Scotland arrive from their plane.

"O-Odd?"

"Yeah?" Odd gulped.

"I'm really, really scared."

"Do you feel like you're going to hurl?"

"Uh-huh."

"Good. So do I." They sat there, fidgeting, as the long minutes dragged by. Finally Zephyr looked up, intent on the little girl entering the lobby. They stood, shared a smile of uncertainty, and walked over to her.

She was accompanied by a badge-carrying agent of the adoption organization. Aiden looked up at them, her little face set in a determined scowl.

"Hi, Aiden. My name is-" Zephyr had kneeled to introduce herself up her new daughter interrupted.

"Okay, lady, I know you're taking care of me but listen up. I don't have to like you because you're not my mom."

"Okay. I wasn't going to say that. My name is Zephyr. This is Odd. We'll be taking care of you." Zephyr, although wounded, limped through the introduction valiantly. "And we'll be taking care of you, yes." She stood and let Odd talk to her while she signed the adoption papers next to his scrawl of a name. The adoption woman handed them some information containing specific information about the small Scottish girl.

Odd stood there, looking at the other two components of his family. He looked at Aiden, then Zephyr, back to Aiden, then back to Zephyr.

"Whoa. She looks a lot like you, Zeph." He commented.

"A little." Zephyr smiled. Aiden had the same hair as her female caretaker, in a lighter hue, and their profiles had the same determined, wise, somewhat sage look. Aiden's eyes were blue while Zephyr's were gray, and the blue held an innocence that Zephyr's had once had.

The adults said expressed their gratitude and farewell to the adoption agency woman and took Aiden to the borrowed car. She climbed in and stared out the window, jaw set, unspeaking. Zephyr and Odd got in the car. Zephyr turned around and talked to her, gently, but firmly.

"Aiden?" The girl looked over, as though bored, "We're not you're parents. We know that. We do not expect you to love us. We do, however, demand your respect. We will respect you but you must do the same for us. I know how you feel and I know it's hard."

"How in the world can you know how I feel, huh? You're just a girl with a weird name. You never got sent to a foster home. You never had to go to a stupid country like France a few days after you turned six. You never had to leave your friends and family for people who don't really care!" Zephyr took a deep, shuddery breath and Odd touched her shoulder to calm her down

"No, Aiden, you're right. In some ways at least. I _did _get sent to a foster home. And I had to go to Belgium a few days after I turned 15 and I had to leave behind everything that had ever been good for me. And yes, I did go to people who didn't care. But let me tell you, we do care. We wouldn't have tried so hard to get you if we didn't." Aiden turned back to the window in response. Zephyr turned around and ran a hand through her hair., sighing. She knew it'd be like this. She just didn't expect to take it so personally.

The car trip back was long, and a tired, culture-shocked Aiden fell asleep not long after the "discussion" she shared with Zephyr. When they arrived, Odd carried her into her room and Zephyr returned the car keys to the neighbors.

"She still asleep?"

"Yeah," Odd said quietly from where he was sitting on their bed. He got up to kiss her forehead. "She'll come around. You know that better than anyone."

"Yeah. That's what I don't like. I want to hear her call me 'mom' by choice but I don't want her to end up like I did. I was a nightmare to my Belgian family." She flopped backwards onto the bed. "I hardly ever said a word to them."

"Do still keep in touch with them?"

"No, they were horrible."

"Exactly. We're different. She's different. Stop worrying about it. You drive me crazy."

"In a good way?" She asked hopefully. He laughed, ruffled her hair, and kissed her soundly on the lips.

"Most of the time, Zeph. Most of the time."


	10. Mom

Hello again all! This chapter uses a Phil Collins/Disney song, and I don't own it.

Aiden had settled in nicely to her new home after a year of adjustment. She still called Odd and Zephyr by their first names, but she almost never talked back and was hailed as a prodigy by her kindergarten and first grade teachers. She'd been among the first to learn to read fluently, and it was a rare occasion we she answered a question wrong. She'd bounced back from the trauma of the agency and never knowing her biological parents almost completely. Though she had just turned seven a few weeks ago, it ended up being her that gave a gift to her parents.

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It was dark that night. The small family had gone to bed early. Aiden had school, as did Odd, and Zephyr had work the next day early as well. It was frantic crying and screaming that woke the 27-year-old pair. Odd heard it first through his snoring. His body jerked awake. He looked at Zephyr, who was awakening but not violently thrashing and twisting as she did in a cold sweat when her dreams turned sour.

"I think Aiden's having a nightmare," He said almost stupidly, starting to get up.

"I'll get it," Zephyr insisted, gently grasping his arm. "You've got work tomorrow." Odd tilted his head to the side in confusion, his mind still clouded by sleep.

"But you've got work, too," He protested, but she was already up and out of the room, making her way down the dark hallway. Tiredly he got up and followed her to prevent himself from feeling useless.

Light poured from Aiden's open room. Zephyr hadn't quite reached Aiden yet, and the small Scottish girl was still crying out, "Momma, Momma!" In her troubled sleep.

"Aiden, Aiden calm down," Zephyr soothed, catching hold of the thrashing first grader. The girl stopped slowly awakened, breathing hard. Had she been older, she most definitely would've been drenched in the characteristic cold sweat of bad dreams.

"Momma, Momma, it was _horrible_," Aiden expressed excitedly. "There were these two people, maybe my parents, and they were driving and they got hit by a car and oh, Momma, they…they" She cried, burying her head into a shocked Zephyr's chest. Odd was leaning against the doorframe, watching with interest.

"It's okay." Zephyr smoothed her silky hair down, and, to Odd's amazement, began to sing, very softly but very clearly.

_Come, stop your crying,_

_It'll be alright  
Just take my hand,_

_Hold it tight. _

_I will protect you from all around you_

_I will be here don't you cry."_

Aiden quieted a little.

"_For one so small, _

_You seem so strong. _

_My arms will hold you, _

_Keep you safe and warm _

_I will protect you from all around you. _

_I will be here, _

_Don't you cry." _

She finished as Aiden finished crying. One thing the small child didn't stop, however, was the new name she'd given Zephyr.

"Momma"

"Hmm?"

"Where'd you learn that song? I like it."

When I was very young, Aiden, _my _mom taught _me _that song. I used to have a lot of nightmares, too. But when she sang that song…Somehow, everything was better." A sadness struck her voice.

"Did your dreams ever have really scary monsters." Zephyr winced.

"Yeah. My dreams, had monsters, alright. But my mom always told me that they went away. And they do. They're not in your closet or under your bed. These monsters aren't real. You can make them go away in your mind." But Aiden hadn't heeded the advice; she was already asleep.

_------------------------------------------_

Zephyr turned out the light as she left Aiden's room and walked slowly back down the hallway, leaning heavily against her husband, her arm around his waist, his around her shoulders. They reached their bedroom and Zephyr pulled herself away and lay on her side, uncovered by the blanket, and stared at the wall, unmoving and mute, not crying.

"You miss her, don't you?" Odd asked in the darkness, quietly. She only nodded. "I'm sorry," He consoled.

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault." Her voice was huskier than usual. She heard him sigh, felt him comb his fingers through her long hair, sensed him fall into sleep. And though the sound of a gun rang in her head and she could feel the specks of blood on her nine-year-old body, she too succumbed to a deep, fitful slumber.

--------------------------------------

The next morning Aiden was livelier even than usual, and as Odd walked her to school she called him nothing but "Dad." Odd knew not to ask why, only signal that it was okay with him with smiles and extra hair tussling, one of his favorite things to do.

Zephyr went through her day in a daze, though it showed not to the kids she worked with. Today she talked to a couple teenagers who had been caught running away from their foster homes, but her notes were the only thing that reminded her of the conversations. She was clearly elated that she was "Mom" to someone, but nostalgically sad at memories of what her own mother was, and more importantly, what she wasn't. She kept thinking.

Her mother had only comforted her after her father attacked one or both of them. She was timid and meek and always let him win. It was by the failure of contraception that Zephyr had been born; Zephyr knew her father would never have her on purpose and her mother wasn't too crazy about her either. Apparently Zephyr had been a difficult birth. She knew all of this only from a journal that had been sent to her when their house had been moved into by another family whose children were not doomed to the same disgusting cycle.

Zephyr didn't hate her mother, only thought that she could've done better. She knew that she couldn't tell her mom how she failed and how she triumphed; she knew it must've been hard trying to raise a child while tip-toeing around green glass and Jack.

Now, more than ever, now that she had a mother-daughter relationship with her child, Zephyr was determined to learn from her mother's mistakes and not make them again.


	11. Late Summer

Ok, guys…this is the climax and I think the one of the saddest chapters. It's not the end of the story.

It's been 2 years since the last chapter.

The weather reports spoke of heavy downpours in Lyon in the upcoming days. It was late summer, and Aiden was about to enter the second grade. She'd passed first grade with flying colors. She was described as a "prodigy" by her teacher. It was rare that she answered a question incorrectly and often her answer was not far off. Her "parents" praised her each time her report card came home or she showed them a project she'd invariably aced, but they didn't treat her any differently than they would've had she been average. Aiden loved the walks she and her mom went on, and walking to school each morning and home each afternoon. She incredibly mature and independent for her age, and hated being reined in by her caretakers.

"Aiden, do you want to go for one last walk before all this rain?" Zephyr called, slipping on her New Balance tennis shoes and switching off the television. She gingerly lay Odd's head on the sofa; a few moments ago he'd fallen asleep with it in her lap.

"Yeah!" Aiden jumped up from the floor where she'd been sitting, disinterestedly watching the news.

"Go write a note for your dad and let's go. The thunderstorms are coming pretty soon." Aiden quickly wrote "Went for a walk with mom, be back before it rains," on a piece of scrap paper and left it on the table, where he'd be sure to see it.

They left the building efficiently, Aiden easily keeping in stride with her mom.

"Where are we going today. Momma?" She asked, blue eyes shining behind her wire-rimmed glasses.

"I was thinking the Kadic campus. Did you have another place in mind?" She shook her head, stick straight hair sent askew.

"No, that's fine."

The campus of the boarding school was open to the public during the day in the summer, when all of the students were either home with family or carefully supervised by hall monitors and teachers. However, because of the ugly black clouds in the distance Zephyr and her daughter were the only ones outside. Zephyr kept a watchful eye but let Aiden play in the grassy fields where she'd once cried her heart out onto Odd's chest. She sighed and sat in the grass, watching Aiden laugh as she rolled down the stargazing hill. A smile found its way to her lips as she thought how this place had been such a paradise. She'd been just about the only student that didn't board, but like so many others wanted to, to get away from home and nagging- or violent-parents.

Half an hour passed as the sun sank a little lower and threatened to have its place in the sky masked by storm clouds, seemingly growing darker by the minute. Zephyr stood to brush herself off and she felt something. Her nostrils and eyes tingled with the sensation of something she'd always been hypersensitive to. It hit her like a fist in the face and she cringed. That smell she'd only experienced if she happened to walk by a bar or an alcoholic on the street, or when she had to walk to house only a couple of blocks away from here

"Aiden," She called her daughter to her side, hiding her fear.

"Yeah, Momma?" The air took the smell of rain, and thunder growled menacingly in the distance. The clouds gathered closer. The temperature dropped and the wind picked up slightly. The sky grew dark and Zephyr's eyes flashed.

Then she saw it.

It was a shadow, lurching in the nearby trees. The drunken shuffle and the crunch of glass was distinct in the air heavy with impending moisture of the storm.

"Aiden," She whispered discretely to her daughter, "I need you to go tell your dad I need to stay a little longer. I need you to go back home by yourself, just this once, and don't tell your dad to come down here, just tell him I'll be home later, okay? Can you do that?"

"Momma I'm scared," Aiden whispered.

"Then I'm going to have to ask you to be very, very brave."

Aiden nodded, and with a nudge from her mom shot off, aware and comforted by the watchful gray stare.

Zephyr turned her attention to the trees, and the figure she knew was there stepped out, into the view of the disappearing sunlight.

--------------------------------

Zephyr stood, sneering. There was the shattering of glass, the drunken shuffle of feet, and the dark shadow she'd seen and smelled and remembered.

_"Don't you run from me!" _

Zephyr swallowed the bile rising in her throat, watching him make his way over to her.

His ice blue eyes stood out clearly against their bloodshot background under the glaze of drunkenness. His hair had stayed mostly black, but the hair around his temples revealed a shock of gray. Out of his pocket stuck something black. The woman shivered as she stood.

_"You're a waste of blood and flesh…" _

She was almost as tall as him now, and she stood filled out, more solid, stronger. Maybe strong enough.

"Jack," She acknowledged coldly.

He didn't say her name.

"Bitch," He said in the same greeting, as if it _were _her name. "How dare you put your own father in jail? I did everything for you."

"No, you did everything _to _me."

_"My name is Zephyr! Why won't you call me Zephyr?"_

A sneer accompanied his reply. "Ungrateful, as always."

A cruel smile laced his lips as he looked at her.

"I've been watching you. You don't deserve any of what you've got. I don't see why he's in love with you anyhow. I suppose I can fix that easily enough." Jack pulled the pistol out of his pocket and a shiver out of his daughter's spine.

"Don't you touch him," She growled, drawing up her stance protectively.

"Oh, I don't have to touch him. You can kill a man, his wife, and their adopted daughter without touching them. You can kill a whole army without touching them. All I need is this," He smiled cockily, bringing the gun in front of his face casually. Zephyr's stance and voice never wavered.

"Put it away. You want to hurt me, fine, but leave Aiden and Odd out of this."

"No, I simply can't do that. They've spoiled you. They must be punished."

_"I never gave you permission to be a burden on someone else's life, did I?" _

A strange protective feeling flooded over Zephyr. He wasn't going to hurt them. Not if she had something to say about it.

"Why the hell have you been following me? Why can't you leave me alone?" Zephyr half yelled. Her heartbeat was escalating and her breath was pushed in and out of her lungs with increasing speed. "Why can't you leave me alone? How did you even get out?"

"I have my ways," The twisted smile again showed itself. "It's none of your concern. You're the one who ran off and married too young and adopted and couldn't even get pregnant on your own. Any woman should at least do that, but you screwed that up, too, didn't you?"

_She would always be flawed and guilty…_

Zephyr didn't answer.

"You want to shoot me or what? Come on, Jack!" She flung her arms wide, "I'm not afraid of you! Come hit me with that whiskey bottle, just like old times! I _dare _you to put that gun in my mouth, you just watch! I'm not a little kid, I have a life and a mind of my own now!"

"You want to run that by me again, you stupid little wench?"

"I hate you!" She shouted into the wind. "You screwed me up so bad I'm surprised Odd didn't leave me! You made me have nightmares and seizures and fear and scars and you even screwed up my smile. Aren't you proud? Why don't you go swig some more whiskey and fall off a bridge, you bastard!" She screamed, completely losing control. His face contorted in anger but he controlled it, just enough to calmly pop a fresh magazine into his pistol.

But it wasn't her he aimed at. He looked past her and to the left and pointed his gun at Odd, who was behind and to the left of his wife, running to her aid. She didn't have time to think. Her speed rushed to her and brought her to her destination and she bolted in front of him just as the fragmented sound of a gunshot blasted through the air, silencing even the thunder.

Odd froze in surprise, in fear. He'd never seen her blood before, and the sight of it scared him. Her left arm hung limp at her side as she amazingly, slowly, painfully got up. The shoulder blade was almost completely shattered, like glass hit by a rock. The woman cringed in pain but stood, if trembling.

_"I think it might be too late to save me." _

"I don't believe you," Jack growled, forgetting Odd and marching over to where she stood. His green bottle was held in the air, clouds still fermenting upon themselves. He brought it down upon her.

_"The bottle shattered, green glass spraying onto the floor…" _

The impact forced her to her knees but pride helped her up and she looked him in his eyes, trying to reach past the glaze.

"I dare you." She seethed through clenched teeth. The whiskey mixed with the blood, and dripped down. Pieces of broken glass fell off her body as she moved.

"Why can't you learn?" He said it the same way she'd said her last statement. He spat, the warm, bubbly saliva that smelled like alcohol trickling down her face.

_"He spit in her eye…" _

She didn't move. Over her shoulder she shouted,

"Odd, where's Aiden?" He snapped out of his trance.

"I…I left her in the apartment with the neighbors."

"Good. Can you tell her that I love her, and that I didn't leave because of her?"

"Zephyr…"

"Can you?" She repeated angrily, urgently.

"Yeah." Was all he could manage to murmur.

Zephyr turned halfway toward her husband but as she did she heard her father cock the gun.

"Go ahead, I'm not scared anymore," She reminded him. Or was she reminding herself? She prepared for the sound and blackness but instead heard a "click" and swearing. She turned back around.

"Jammed again? That saved me when I was nine years old, and it saves me now, doesn't it?" She asked him smugly. He didn't hide his anger. Hot drunken breath escaped him through flaring red nostrils and he hit her with the butt of the gun on the back of the head, sending her down. She tried to get up but he stepped on the middle of her back, not just placed his foot there but brought it down with force. She tried again but he kneeled to her level and started hitting her in his blind rage.

"I figured the stupid thing would jam, so I brought this, just in case," He smiled his characteristic sick smile and brought a pocket knife from the same place he'd brought the gun.

His fists sought her face, his boot her ribcage. He jabbed the knife through her side, his accuracy wounded by alcohol, he managed to miss her heart. Infuriated by her confidence he kept beating her until some parts of her flesh were literally a bloody pulp. Her left shoulder was ripped to shreds and she couldn't move or even feel her legs, which were also cut up extremely. Jack had a lot of force and he used every scrap he could muster to harm his daughter. She was flipped over on her back and he hit her face. She smiled smugly again, just because it made him angry and she didn't care. She knew he'd find her again anyway, and she knew that Odd and Aiden were both safe. Still, her breath caught in her throat when she heard the crunch of one side of her ribcage as he swung his foot at it violently. It was weakened by repeated knife blows. The entire right ribcage was ripped open, hinged where it met her spine. She screamed and cursed herself.

The cry reached Odd and cleared his mind. He rushed without thinking at her attacker, blindly hitting him, knocking him to the ground and holding him there with his knees. Jack scrambled to get up but could not. Odd grabbed the knife, the blood of Zephyr dripping onto his hands. He wanted to vomit but held it close to her attacker's throat instead.

"You leave us alone," He warned, pressing the blade against the clammy neck skin. "And don't you ever come back or I'll kill you myself."

Lightning flashed as Jack was chased off, the fear for once in his eyes, and Zephyr attempted to stand once more, still dazed. She managed to get up on her hands and knees, right ribs dangling, but collapsed. Odd, scratched and bruised by Jack's struggle, made his way over to her.

"Zephyr…Zephyr…He called to her, and she looked at him with her damaged face.

"Odd…" Was all she got out before she began to cough violently, blood spurting out of her mouth.

"Shhh, it's alright." He soothed, gathering her in his arms like a broken bird. He chocked on a lump of tears.

"No, Odd, it's not. You almost got hurt. I tried so hard…All these years, ever since I met you, to keep him from hurting you."

"You're so crazy, Zephyr. You're so insane," Odd, whispered, and he managed a smile as he brushed back once again that stray lock of crimson hair from her bloodied face.

"I-I'm not crazy. Just in love." She managed weakly.

"Look at you, look at you," He crooned. "Look how brave and strong you are. I'm so proud of you."

"Odd…I can't see anything…I can hardly see your face."

"Zephyr, please. Please just rest. I need you to focus on holding on, okay?" He stood and turned, trying as best he could manage not to break down crying and screaming. He was in the process of pulling his mobile out of his pocket when he heard a soft,

"I'm not ready to die." Odd squeezed his eyes shut, mechanically answered the questions of the emergency line operator, and hung up, dropping his phone in the grass as he knelt beside her.

Each heartbeat was a battle, each breath a war.

"I can't die. I need to be there for Aiden."

"Please, Love, don't worry about that right now," Odd pleaded, "We're all going to be just fine."

"I need to be there when she goes to homecoming, to prom. When she breaks up with her boyfriend, when she goes to college, when she gets married. I need to be there when she grows up, Odd."

"I know, Zeph. I know. And you will be, because the paramedics are on their way and they're going to give you a machine so it doesn't hurt to breathe so much, okay?" She nodded, eyes slipping shut in exhaustion but be being forced up by her willpower to stay awake.

"_Breathe, Zeph…"_

"You're crying, she pointed out, weakly reaching up a bloodied finger to wipe the drops of water away.

"_Just take big, deep breaths." _

"It's just cause I love you so much," Odd choked on his words.

_"Do you think wishing stars really work?" _

"Odd, your family was right."

"_senza valore…"_

"No they weren't. They weren't"

"You never told me what those words in Italian that they said to me meant."

"It doesn't matter."

"They were right."

"Stop wasting your energy. Stop talking. Just shut up, Zephyr, shut up!"

"I don't have purple blood after all." She lay in literal pool of it, was drenched from head to toe in her own rank, wet, sticky, degrading blood, the blood that coursed through her veins, the blood of her attacker and the blood of the woman he'd killed.

"_Anima sporcata…"_

"Dirty blood."

"What?" Odd stared her in the eye, which was hard because it was glazed with pain and the loss of awareness to her surroundings.

"Dirty blood. It's what Eric said, isn't it? He called me worthless too, didn't he?"

"How'd you figure it out, you smart girl, you?" He asked, gentle and sad at the same time.

"I've heard it in English, in French. After awhile it doesn't matter what language. It all sounds the same."

_"That's all you are and it's all you'll ever be!" _

"Zephyr, stop talking. I love you too much for this. Just shut up so the paramedics can help you, got it?" He told her. "Stay awake and shut up. Please, just shut up, Zephyr, shut up!"

"Odd, stop. I know I'm not going to make it. I hate it, but I know it." She said each word as if it were its own sentence. "I'll tell you what you're going to do, okay? You're going to mourn me, and you're going to remember me. But after a while it won't hurt as much. You're going to pick yourself up and find someone else. You have to, because even though you'll still love me, you need someone who is really there."

"No…Zephyr I can't…"

"Yes, you can live without me, and you will. I know you will. I'm not the only strong one around here." She reached up to touch his face, and he covered her hand with his, hers shaking in pain and shock, his in fear and tragedy.

All at once action took place. The night air suddenly became filled with activity. Flashing blue lights found Odd and Zephyr. Odd's mobile rang, his neighbors worried and wondering when he'd be home. He didn't pick it up. Uniformed paramedics blocked his view of Zephyr as they checked his vital stats and attended to Zephyr.

"Not me," He told them, pointing to the woman on the ground, "Her. She's the one who's hurt."

"We're just making sure you're okay, Son. It's our job." One said.

"Then do it. I'm fine." He clenched his teeth. The late summer wind cooled his sweaty face and ruffled his hair. He shook and the paramedics gave him a blanket, but he didn't know why. He didn't know anything anymore. He could hardly remember how old he was, his daughter's name, his address. All he could mutter was, "Zephyr."

The stars blinked down on the scene, light wind and siren calls filled the air, and the grass, though covered in blood and broken glass and hope, swayed in the crescent moonlight.

It was late summer after all.


	12. Heart Monitor

Odd had always hated hospitals, but he didn't have energy to hate. He was wet from the downpour that had started when the ambulance had arrived. He was sitting beside a patchwork Zephyr. Even he would admit, she looked awful.

Stitches and gauze covered her body. Her face was lined with the black thread, surprisngly bandage-free. An IV drip went through her left wrist, and one for oxygen traveled up her nose. She'd been there for hours; thankfully the blood transfusion had been successful.

It was just her and Odd in the small room, accompanied by the persistent , dogged beeps of the heart monitor and occasionally a nurse or two to make sure everything was in order. Odd sat in a chair next to her, and it seemed as if darkness had swallowed them into its own little world.

"My little fighter," Odd rasped, letting his fingers rest in her hair, leaked through the blood -covered strands. She was asleep now, but she'd been drifting in and out of conciousness.

Odd was extremely preoccupied with his best friend, but he'd managed to call the neighbors that were watching Aiden, as well as Jeremie and Aelita and Yumi and Ulrich. He sighed as he ran a finger down her face. He accidentally lightly grazed one of the stitches and she flinched in her sleep.

_Zephyr had fallen into a light sleep, hands clasped behind her head. Odd, forgetting how close she was to him, spread his arms out and, completely by accident, one of them just happened to collide, almost softly, with Zephyr's ribcage._

_She woke up, pale eyes wide with pain, quickly sitting up, grasping her side with one arm, biting the knuckle of her free hand to keep from screaming. Odd sat up beside her, hands on her shoulders._

"_Oh, God, Zeph, your side too?" His friend slowly recovered and Odd gently turned her face towards him. "Zephyr…please…tell me. Tell me. Please, please tell me. What in the world is going on?" He begged. She pulled away, stood up, ignoring the stares of her friends._

"Come on, kid," Odd whispered. "You remember how we would play whe we were little, how we'd play-fight and chase each other. It seemed like a game then but it was practice. I know you can beat this."

_"He shook his head calmly, 'You're strong. You'll get through this...'"_

"I know you will," He told her confidently, kissing her, and her response was so faint that it felt as though he were kissing water.

-------------------------------------------

Zephyr groaned slightly as she opened her eyes. The blurred vision she had of Odd's face cleared as she found her focus. Pain coursed through her and exhaustion and knowledge dragged her down, as well as drugs.

"Hey," She managed, reveling in his gentle smile.

"Well, look who made it through the night," Odd grinned, his voice coarse. Early morning light fell faintly through the single window in the room. Her eyes seemed even paler than usual, drained of energy and life, and Odd could see his fear reflecting in their orbs. They asked him a question he did not want to answer. "No..." He told her, letting a few built-up tears slip from his amber eyes. She said nothing in reply, only reached her un-IVed hand up weakly to let her fingers leak through his hair.

And he knew what she wanted to say.

_"...Your hair's really soft when it's wet and doesn't have that purple crud in it," A soft smile played on her lips as she looked at it. Her hand seemed detached from her body, but she kept fondling his golden hair, wet and darker from the rain..."_

Odd sighed, trying, and failing, to soothe the ache in his chest. He knew he couldn't do anything. She looked pale and gaunt, and though she had been in the hospital for only hours, she looked like her weight had dropped and her eyes were hollowed out slightly. Stray blood oozed from between the threads of the stitches. She looked strikingly like she did as a kid, even the spirit only flickered in her dialated eyes.

"Zephyr?"

"Yeah?"

_She looked breathtakingly beautiful in the rain._

"I think you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," He told her, letting his fingers stay in her hair. Her wanted to tell her something, something he hadn't told her in a long time, even though she probably knew it.

"Odd?"

"Yeah?"

"I still think you're hair's really soft when it's wet and doesn't have that purple crud in it."

He smiled, and felt the sting in his nose, eyes and chest as he fought tears.

And still the heart monitor beeped steadily on.

"I don't want to lose you," Odd whispered after an hour-long pause.

"I don't want to lose you either," She replied, voice even weaker, "But I don't have a choice." Odd sighed.

"Yes you do. You always had a choice."

"No I didn't. I didn't have a choice. I had to protect you. He was going to hurt you."

"Zephyr I have to tell you that-" But he was cut off. She grimaced in intense pain. Her body felt like it was on fire, scorching in its injuries. She began shaking violently, and the heart monitor's beeps became faster and faster, so they almost overlapped. Adrenaline pounded through Odd, but he couldn't move. His fingers remained in her hair, and he stayed rooted to his uncomfortable plastic chair. He was also shaking. They remained together, her shaking out of some unknown force, him out of fear.

Several members of the hospital staff burst into the room.

"You have to leave now, son," The head doctor fairly pushed him out of the room, his fingers ripped from her hair. She was blocked from his view by the personell, and through the door he heard the word "lidocaine."

He saw the needle and the beeps seemed to get faster, and he wondered if his heartbeats were monitored would they match his.

Then she flat-lined.

He felt his heart stop as well, stilled by the slam of the one, long, continuous beep.

The doctors and nurses rushed around Zephyr, but just as suddenly they halted, shaking their heads, their panicked frenzy useless.

Odd couldn't fathom the impact yet.

Zephyr was gone.

"I have to tell you that I love you."


	13. Left Alone

Odd watched her body lay there, motionless. She didn't look like she was sleeping. She didn't look peaceful. He felt insane, so insane he let out a small laugh. The doctor who was still in the room looked at him strangely.

"Mr. Della Robbia, is there something I can help you with?"

"She's not supposed to be on her back." He told him. "She always hated sleeping on her back. As long as I knew her she only did it once." His smile dissolved. "She was always afraid of gettign hurt. I never thought her fear would come true." His hand fell from his chin to her now cold side.

Her eyes were still open, filmed with the glaze of death. The blood that once surfaced between her stitches now lay cooling in her veins. She'd been gone for hours. He hadn't moved.

"Mr. Della Robbia," The doctor interrupted his thoughts. "I need to tell you how it happened." Odd sat in his plastic chair. It had been his post for a long, long time. He held her cold, limp hand, trying to ignore the settling stiffness, as if they were bearing bad news together. But they weren't. He was doing this alone. He was doing everything alone.

"Mr. Della Robbia, we're extremely sorry for your loss. To tell you the truth we were surprised she wasn't a DOA. She'd suffered massive injuries. Would you like me to tell you? If it's too painful, I understand."

Odd said nothing.

"She had shattered her left shoulder. If she lived, it would've remained useless. She wouldn't have even been able to feel it. The nerves and tendons were too damaged to repair."

Shattered.

Odd grimaced.

"Her cheekbone had been fractured when she was young, correct?"

Fractured

Odd nodded.

"It was refractured, this time it was worse. Two vertebrae were smashed, along with that part of her spinal cord. She wouln't have been able to walk ever again. There was no way we could fix it."

Smashed.

Refractured.

Odd shivered.

"Her ribcage was hinging on. The only reason we saved that was because it hadn't completely snapped off. Almost all of her ribs were broken or cracked."

Hinging. Broken. Cracked.

Odd shut his eyes, just for a moment.

"She had extensive internal bleeding, and she hadn't been far from a ruptured spleen. Blood had been leaking into her trachea and lungs. That was the rattling sound you heard when she inhaled and exhaled."

Ruptured. Leaking.

Odd tried his best to forget the sound.

It had sounded like chains being yanked inside her chest cavity, and it made her cough up thick, dark blood, almost like syrup and it made him nauseous, until just a few hours before she died, when it mysteriously stopped.

Yanked.

"The way she died was, for a resaon we are still researching, her heart rate skyrocketed, and we used a drug called lidocaine to bring it down. We thought we gave her the correct dosage, but the nurse hadn't accounted for her massive blood loss. There was just too uneven a ratio. I'm sorry."

Massive loss.

He placed a hand on Odd's shoulder, for only a minute, and then left him alone.

As alone as he'd been in almost 2 decades.

He stayed by his wife's stiff corpse. He touched her face, let his tears fall in her eyes and on her blood-stained skin. She didn't flinch when he touched her.

She didn't do any of the things he was already starting to miss, like nudging her head under his arm, or running her fingers through his hair and over his face, or reaching up to kiss him soundly on the lips, or flopping herself against him.

He stayed for a long time and thought of what he'd lost.

He'd lost the feeling her kiss gave him, the sensation of her fingers on his face or in his hair, he'd lost her eyes, her face, her voice. Her gentle off-kilter smile, almost reckless, her way of always having to be close to him when they slept. He'd lost the way she'd try and wait up for him after a long shift and he'd lost the way she smiled at him in the morning. He'd lost his wife. His lover. His fiancee, his girlfriend, and his best friend. He'd lost her laughter, her tears, her tackles when she heard him come in, even her smell.

He'd lost his world.

----------------------------------------------

"I need you to let go, sir," The nurse told him, and reluctantly, he complied. His wife was covered with a white sheet, the tubes detatched, and she was wheeled away to the mortuary down below ground level. And with nothing left to do, he left the hospital, shocked by the cool late September air.

He'd only been int he hospital about half a day but it felt like years. He wanted Zephyr to follow him out and take his hand because they both wanted the world to know their love. He wanted her to feel the cool air. He wanted to hug her from behind and twirl her around, and then set her feet on the ground and simply stand there. He wanted to smell her hair, hear her voice whisper something, taste her lips crashing into his, see the look she gave him, and feel her in his embrace.

Just to know she was still there.

But that wasn't going to happen, and Odd wandered home. His head felt stuffed with cotton. He tooked terrible and got many stares, credited to his blood blotched clothing and his hopeless posture, his seemingly unseeing eyes.

And then he entered his apartment.

"Daddy!" A small voice called.

"Hey Aiden," Odd smiled, masking his grief surprisingly well. Her eyes were bright and shielded still by the glasses she'd always worn, and her face was bright.

"Where are Mr. and Mrs. Lisbane?" He asked, referring to his neighbors.

"They're still sleeping."

"Okay."

"Daddy? What's all over you clothes?" Her voice shook with worry, like a light switch from illumination to inky blackness. "Where's Momma?"

"Aiden..." He trailed off.

"Dad, where's Mom?" She'd changed what she'd called them in that split moment. Odd knew she was going to have to do a lot more growing up in the next few minutes.

And still, he hesitated.


	14. G'night, Zeph

Aiden knew as soon as her dad walked in the door that her mom wasn't ever coming home. She knew what the stains all over his clothes were, and she knew what the sadness etched on his face told. She didn't how, or why, but she knew. She'd lost a foster parent once before, and the disgusting disappointment returned with vigor, no different from when one of her past "dads" had perished, like her real parents, in a car accident.

"Aiden..." He began, quietly and gently, looking her in her blue, blue eyes.

"She's not coming home, is she?"

A sigh from her dad. A frustrated habit, the hand through the hair. Aiden had seen him do that many times. She'd known Zephyr to do it, and to do it to Odd, and she'd seen Odd do it to Zephyr. It was a simple way of flirting or showing affection. She hadn't understood, but now it didn't matter. She was angry and bitter. Why couldn't anyone stay in her life?"

"No. She was hurt very badly, and the doctors couldn't fix her."

The little girl felt frustration beyond her years. She didn't see herself as a small child.

"Why can't you just say she died? Why can't you just say it and be done with it? I know what it means! I know what those stains are!"

Then Aiden exploded. She'd lost so much, Tears sparked and stung her eyes and voice.

"It's your fault! You couldn't save her! Whay can't I have a mother? Why didn't you do anything?" She was crying, sobbing openly, while Odd let just a little anger surface.

"Hey." He fairly barked, just to get her attention. "Aiden, there was _nothing _that anyone could have done. If there was something, anything, don't you think I would have done it?" She could see the anguish and helplessness in his amber eyes, before she threw herself into his embrace, sobbing like a child her age should.

"I w-want her t-to c-c-come h-h-h-home!" She wailed.

"I know. So do I. So do I," He reassured. His neighbors crept quietly out the front door upon seeing the seen, and Odd thanked them with a subtle nod.

Aiden cryed herself to sleep that night, and after Odd tucked her in, shirt soaked with salty water, and then plodded slowly to his room.

Not theirs.

Just his.

The room was just as it had been left the morning of the attack. Odd and Zephyr both had had rigorous work schedules, even though one of them was always home when Aiden was, and often when they came in late the other was already asleep, and their clothes were discarded on the floor in exhaustion. He remembered one time in particular, a time that still made his heart melt.

_It was fairly late when Odd stepped out of the shower, probably around 12:30. He donned his boxers and threadbare t-shirt. He looked in the sleeping Aiden before making it tiredly to the room he shared with Zephyr. _

_He was surprised to see a sliver of light from under the door; usually she was already sleeping soundly when he came in. He opened the door slowly and smiled at what he saw. _

_His wife lay curled up on her side of the bed, her lamp dimly lighting the room. She was clutching something in her hands, their grip eased by sleep. _

_He made his way over to her side of the bed, genlty shakingher shoulder, bringing her into groggy conciousness. _

_"Hey Freckleface," He greeted, leaning over her and running a finger down the bridge of her nose. That and her cheeks had always been lightly sprinkled with freckles; Odd thought them cute and Szephyr childish. Zephyr smiled, stretching, still clutching what Odd now positively identified as a t-shirt. One of his dirty ones he hadn't bothered to put in the hamper, to be exact. _

_"Hey, Handsome," She replied. "Did you check on Aiden?" _

_"Yeah. What's this?" He asked. He'd taken the shirt from her lax grip and now held it up before dropping it to the floor. _

_"One of your t-shirts," The redhead shrugged inocently._

_"Why?" He pressed, clasping her hands in both of his. _

_"It smells like you. I tried waiting up for you but I gave up," A small laugh tumbled from her lips, "And your smell helps me sleep." She admitted, shrugging again. _

_"You're weird," He laughed, kissing her and rolling over her to lay on his side. of the bed, facing her, "but I like it."_

_"You'd understand, she said, turning off her lamp. One pair of hands was still touching, and Odd used his to stroke the back of hers. _

_"G'night, Zeph." _

Odd made his way around the room, looking at framed photographs and objects of that nature that hung on the wall. He took this opportunity to go through her things. There was a shoebox that she kept her mother's belongings in. There were some grainy photographs of the family throughout its road to disaster, and Odd could see the tragic timeline as the bruises gradually began to appear. There was also a very old and worn compostition notebook. This was something Odd had never seen before and he picked it up and flipped through it.

It was a journal. Her handwriting was small, and every spare space in the notebook was written on. It chronicled her time in France from the time she was eleven years old. He was surprised that a lot of the entries were centered around him, some were even letters to him. Others were dark and had a severe lack of hope, sometimes little spots of blood and tears appeared on the aged, brittle paper. These were accounts of when she'd been beaten. As he dug deeper into the journal his name was mentioned a lot more and the entries grew more violent. He read the pages from when she lived in Belgium. There was the trial of Jack, which he had testified in, and her feelings on that. This entry was extremely angry, especially when she graphically described the pictures the prosecution had used, and then the tone switched to relief when the verdict was determined. He sighed at the entry she'd made the night she'd been reunited with him, and then when they'd been married. Here the entries stopped, the journal full. He made a mental note to read all of them someday, because when he flipped through it he almost had her voice back.

Odd placed the shoebox where she'd always kept it, and walked around the bed to his side. On his way his eye caught a discarded gray t-shirt lying on the floor. He bent down and picked it up, sniffing it.

It haed always been her favorite t-shirt to sleep in. He smiled at its familiar scent. Still clutching it, he lay on his side of the bed, and the cold emptiness from the other side made his stomach churn. Still he faced where shed would lay, invariably curled up, invariably touching him. He closed his eyes and stretched out a hand.

He almost felt her fingers interlace with his, and he almost felt her breath on his face.

He sighed, bringing his knees to his chest and letting the soothing vapors from the shirt waft into his nose.

"G'night, Zeph."


	15. Angel Arms

It was just a few days after Odd's world had been almost completely shattered when another nightmare manifested itself in his tremored world to mangle his already shredded spirit.

He'd put plastic smiles on for Aidan, yet showed real emotions for Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita, who were staying nearby, spending the day woth him, making sure he didn't go to any extreme, as he had been known to do in his youth.

It was one morning before the four of his remaining friends visited when the doorbell rang.

Odd answered, disshevled. His clothes were wrinkled though he was fully dressed, he had massive bags under his eyes, and five o'clock shadow was showing itself, bold and blond, on his face. His eyes were dull and almost glassy, but Aidan, being so young, only saw her dad. However, the strangers at his door didn't buy the illusion of his painted-on smile and half-hearted politeness. He cringed at those in the doorway. There were two men, both bigger than he, and in the middle, the nightmare. That ageless mahogany woman with dead eyes and an authoritive attitude.

"Can I help you?" He asked coldly." Aidan was brushing her teeth after breakfast, and though she was deeply troubled by her mom's death, was eager to go on a walk with her dad.

"Mr. Della Robbia, let me say that I am deeply sorry for the loss of your wife," The woman greeted, but Odd knew, just like always, she was faking. It had always been a delicate dance between the three of them, and Odd was unsteady now that it was just the two of them. He'd hidden behind Zephyr all these years, because she knew the steps with the foster care agency.

"Thank you." He replied solidly, tightening his grip on the open door.

"However, we at the agency feel that all of our children need to be raised in stable environments."

"What do you mean?" He asked, worried and cold in his gut.

"Odd, the contract you signed when you adopted Aidan stated that if anything happened to either of you where one or both of you would no longer be able to care for Aidan, then she would be returned to the care of our agency until a new, more suitable home was found for her. With Zephyr dead," He cringed at the phrase, "And you in a highly unstable mental state, we have no choice but to take her back."

"You can't do this," He apprehended through clenched teeth. "I didn't get a phone call or a letter or anything!" He growled.

"We've had trouble with parents disappearing with children. We can't risk that anymore. I'm sorry, Mr. Della Robbia. Now, if you will, where is the child?" She looked around him." He blocked her view in a controlled rage.

"You're not sorry. You people are never sorry! If you take her away, you'll be taking her away from anything that was ever good for her! Can't you see that? Can't you people see that?"

Each word out of the agency representative's mouth was like a hammer blow to his skull, and his brain ricocheted around in a confused whirling daze.

"Mr. Della Robbia, if you do not give us the child we shall be forced to take aggressive legal action!" The woman began to lose her patience.

Odd was about to retort "Do your worst," but Aidan chose that exact unfortunate moment to scamper to him and wrap her arms around his leg in affection, sending her wire-rimmed glasses askew.

"Can we go on a walk now, Daddy?" She asked, beaming up at him. Her expression quickly turned to panic as she saw his fist was clenched and he hadn't acknowledged her prescence. Then she nocticed the adoption personell and backed away, like a frightened animal.

"Aidan?" Odd crouched down, facing his daughter, the last remaining member of their small family. Her wide blue eyes focused on him, red-gold hair falling in front of her face.

"Yeah?" Her voice was uncertain.

Wasn't everything?

"They've decided that they need you back in Scotland."

"So we're moving?" Now confusion settled into her native accent. Odd teared up a little, and his voice began to choke.

"Aidan...they're not letting me go with you."

Now disappointment, almost expected.

"I figured. This happened when my last 'parents' got a divorce. It's because Momma died, isn't it?"

"Yes." He said sadly.

"Why can't I have a normal family?" She fairly shouted. Her eyes turned, wet, towards the woman, her tormentor, her captor. "If she was my real mom, I'd get to stay, because you don't care if someone's real mom dies! Why'd she have to go? I hate her! I hate her; she left me and it's all her fault!"

"Aidan," Odd calmed himself, reminded himself of how she must feel, and took hold of her upper arms. "Look at me." She did. "Your mom told me to tell you that she loves you. And I know that's true, and she didn't leave because of you. She loved you very very much, and what happened wa snot her fault, and she did everything she could to come back, but she couldn't, she just couldn't."

"Momma said she needed me to be brave," Aidan picked up her head. Odd smiled.

"I love you, Aidan." He said, trying not to let tears slip down his face.

"I love you, too Daddy," She amswered, hugging him, small arms looped around his neck.

And then she was gone.

The adoption agency took her, just like that, the small girl looking over her shoulder tears in rivers down her face, to catch one last glimpse of her dad.

He'd told her to write and given her his address and phone number, and some pictures of them as a whole family. But no matter how hard you stare at the pictures, you can't go back.

When the four disappeared down the street in a car similar to the one Zephyr had left for Belgium in long ago, Odd plodded back inside, aching and sobbing and crying. He screamed himself hoarse in his apartment, forcing himself to lie on the floor in exhaustion.

And the most strange, warm feeling came over him. He felt as though someone was almost holding them in their arms, and singing the lullaby that voice had sung to Aidan not so long ago. Odd tried to lean against the body of the voice, but all he could feel was the arms, but the feeling reache dhim all over. He knew that zephyr was there, even though no one else was, and though exhausted and accompanied by a sore throat, Odd cried himself to sleep in an angel's arms.

----------------------------

Sorry if that moved fast, but it's late and I had to get something up! Hope you enjoy!


	16. As Sunlight Had

The service was small. The only ones in attendance were Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd's family. He could feel Zephyr almost there, her pale eyes staring out of the photographs set up on a table in the front of the large church. The visitors sat in the pews, mirth for once absent. A few candles were lit, and the small copper urn containing Zephyr's charred ashes sat shining on the podium from which many of her friends had spoken. Late afternoon light shone upon her husband, who was the only one standing at the front of the room, looking at the many photographs, some of the only proof that she had existed on this earth, besides her Irish birth certificate, which he had, her wedding ring, and various other possessions. A tear slid almost depressed in itself down his sophisticated Italian face as he stared at the many images of her frozen face.

The first was a picture of the six of them in their early teenage years. They all had their arms around each other and were grinning as wide as their mouths would go. Jeremie's thick-rimmed glasses were knocked askew, and innocence shown on their faces, just as sunlight had.

_"Odd..." _

His eyes wandered to another picture just next to it. It had been taken the same day as the last, but it was only Zephyr and himself. Odd was being his usual hyper self that day and was playfully pushing her out of the frame. Her studied her face. She was laughing, open-mouthed, one eye closed, but there was a twinge of pain that contorted her exression more than the fractured cheekbone had. He peered closer now, and thought he noticed a small bruise just above her right eye.

_"You were wrong." _

Another was of He and his best friend a few days before she'd stepped out of his life and into Belgium. He could now clearly see the difference in her eyes, her face, her smile from the earlier snapshots. She seemed more filled out. Her eyes didn't hold the scared fleeting look as they once had. They'd been hanging out int he forest, arms draped around each other. Sunlight dappled the pair. Odd longed to touch her face, just as sunlight had.

_"How?"_

Another photograph was of he and Zephyr after she'd returned from Belgium and they'd begun dating. she laid on him, fingertips of one hand just slightly touching the hair at his temples, the other lay idle on his chest. His own hands rested on her hip and cupped her cheek. They'd been about to kiss when Yumi, who was also sprawled on the grass, managed a quick picture. He noticed now the Zephyr's hair seemed almost a dark red-gold, like Aidan's, only not as bright or lightly hued. The sun had caught wisps of her hair, which was let down, like in most of the pictures, and let them shine in their unique color. He speculated that he'd caught her when she fell, or helped her up. Just as sunlight had.

_"Wishing stars don't work. They never worked."_

Two others stood side-by-side. The first was of Odd's college garduation, which Jeremie had slyly and quietly taken while Zephyr had jumped up and planted a sound kiss on his lips. His eyes were wide with pleasant surprise and he was leaning slightly back, hands halfway up. Her eyes, on the contrary, were fully closed, and she kept him from pulling fully away by gently letting the silky cloth of his graduation gown twist slightly between her fingers. He smiled. The sunlight once again shone, lighting up the pair. Odd's cap was knocked slightly askew, knocked from her sudden attack, just as her smile bad been permanantly tilted by a much different, more expected but still surprising assault.

The other one was of _her _college graduation day, where she once again was seen being brazen. She'd grabbed hold of his violet tie and pulled him down so she could reach his lips. His eyes were open, but not as wide as the previous snapshot. His hands were on her shoulders. They'd made it through years of pressure and the torture of being apart. They'd made it. Just as sunlight had.

Another of their wedding day. She was standing on the toes of her bare feet, leaning to kiss him just after the vows were said. He was holding her face on the far side, her waist on the near. She had her hands looped around his neck. This time they both smiled through their kiss. The day they'd promised to remain together, 'til death do they part. And they had. Almost down to the second. He'd never left her. He'd stayed as much as he could during her life, just as sunlight had.

There was one of the three of them. He, Zephyr, and Aidan all together. Odd was tickling Aidan, Zephyr watching, amused. Her remembered. He'd turned and done the same to her once Aidan surrendured. He'd loved her laugh, now only a fairly quickly fading memory.

Another of him sitting behind her, she between his spread legs, and his arms around her, leaning over to kiss her cheek, as she was mirroring the movement.

This one was his favorite. It was a headshot of her profile. He'd taken it one day when she'd stopped by when the school day was over and he was done teaching. They'd gone up to the rooftop they'd shared some of their most tense moments on, and she'd leaned over the edge, propped up on one elbow, gazing into the sunset. The world seemed bathed in gold, her face included. Her eyes were lit a translucent gray-gold, and a wisp of a smile teased her lips.

The last one was one he'd found at the last minute. It one of he and Zephyr, just days before she'd confessed to him. He was one the left of the picture, she on the right. He was smiling, open-mouthed, with his index finger on her nose. They were sitting on the floor, and it was she who was leaning back, gray eyes crossed to look at his finger. He smiled, briefly, as he remembered what he'd said to her,

_"Hehe...You freckleface, you,..." _

"Odd?" He felt Aelita's soft hand on his shoulder, but it was cold to him. "It's your turn to speak. The kids...they're pretty tired."

"Okay." He ran a hand down the frozen sunlit face of his wife one more time, and headed to the podium. He took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and began the eulogy of his best friend.

-------------------

"I knew Zephyr Blitz for almost twenty years. I spent a lot of that time helping her up. I remember being so thankful when she came to school each day, even all beat up, because I knew she was safe. I did everything I possibly could to keep her safe, but...some things you just can't control. She was a pretty touch kid. She played rough, and never once did I hear her complain. Her endurance was amazing.

"When she was rescued from Jack's abuse I was just as happy as she was, because I knew that I wouldn't have to hurt because she was hurt. Those bruises I saw made me sting, too. But then they decided to ship her off to Belgium, and she wasn't loved very much there either. I honestly believe that only six people really loved her in her life."

_"I've done everything in my power to help you..." _

"When I introduced her to my family their comments hurt me as much as they did her. In fact," He choked on his words a little, "When she lay in a pool of her own blood, she said, 'I guess your family was right. I don't purple blood after all.'"

Odd's dad and brother hung their heads in shame, while Rose glared at them admonishingly.

"They were right, Zephyr didn't have a blue-line pedigree, but she wasn't a dog either. I didn't love her because she was full this or pure that. I loved her," He touched the urn for a second, "I still love her because she gave everything she had- her life- to let me have my own. When she was in that hospital, they had tubes in her, going up her nose, into her stomach and wrists, like she was a machine. I could look at her and tell she hated it. Zephyr hated being forced into dependence, because the only time she wasn't let down was when she had a choice. She was such a little fighter. You could see it in her eyes. I loved her because she was what she wanted to be. She was herself."

"I lost a lot when I lost Zephyr. I lost my wife and my best friend. I lost a companion, a partner of twenty years, and, admittedly, great sex." A weak laugh from the audience. "I lost her voice though. I lost her smell and her touch, her kiss and her laugh. I would like to say she is still with me, but I just can't feel it."

"Still, although she was great, she could've been even better if she'd been raised like the rest of us. I remember her coming back from Belgium or even after Jack was arrested for the first time, and she was almost emaciated and scared; incomplete. I remember how if she forgot her medication she would wake up in the middle of the night a mess. She'd sweat bullets, and no matter how hard she tried not to, she'd scream, and it would rip me apart. She was screwed up because of him and we never got a chance because of it.

"Because of Jack my last image of her is her on a hospital bed, sewn together, barely alive. Because of him the last thing she did to prove she loved me even though she didn't have to was getting shot." Odd didn't seem to notice, and if he did, didn't care that he was crying. "I know she chose to die that day. She loved to run and she could still outdo me anytime. If- id she had lived she wouldn't have ever walked again, and she would've hated that, too.

"But I don't want to remember her like that. I want to remember her for the amazing person she was. She was beautiful, talented, sweet, loving, protective, selfless, and a million words that can all be wound into her name.

"She was Zephyr Aine Blitz."

--------------------------

He was given handshakes, hugs, and pats on the back as they all filed out the door. Odd blew out the candles, gathered the pictures under his arm, and let his tears fall to the floor in silence. He switched out the lights as he stepped out the doorway, and looked behind him. Sunlight of that late afternoon shone through the mammoth windows, rivers of light in the darkness of the church. He sighed, and shut the large door behind him with a lound resounding

"Click."


	17. Let Go

Sorry for the unscheduled hiatus, guys! But I had some Word program problems, as in we didn't have it installed for awhile. But I'm back now! I know, the last few chapters were depressing and sad, but this story has a happy if bittersweet ending.

Chapter 17: Let Go

Ulrich watched his best friend hold his head in his hands. Odd wasn't sobbing, not crying at all. He'd simply collapsed into himself, a shell of who he'd once been. The brunette shook his head. Three years ago they'd taken Aiden away. Three years ago Odd had completely broken down. He'd come very close to losing his job at the school because his depression effected him so severely at the school he'd threatened to kill himself in front of the class. Luckily the physics kids backed him up and helped him fight to keep his job. He'd been given a month off to pull himself together. Now he could control himself in public, but in the darkness his apartment had become, he was cold, unreachable, and silent.

The wall clock in the family room ticked away into nothingness. Ulrich sighed within himself. He'd pulled away from Yumi and his kids to help his friend. It was taking a toll on his own marriage, and he was considering going back. He'd been switching countries for the past three years, from England to France, from France to England. But it didn't seem to change Odd's attitude at all. Time wasn't changing anything. The clock was ticking, it had been ticking for three years, and Odd hadn't moved an inch from his depression.

"Odd…" Ulrich began, breaking the silence. His best friend in whole world slowly turned his tired head to look at him, pierce him with those dull amber eyes. They'd been dull for 3 years, and time wasn't changing that, either.

"Yeah?" The blond finally responded, quietly, but there.

"I…" The German tried to find the right words, hesitating. "I don't think this is what Zephyr wanted you to end up like."

"It doesn't matter what she would have wanted," Odd answered, monotone. His voice was cracked and dry from lack of use. It was just before school started back up, in September.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter? Since when has she not mattered to you?" Ulrich's green eyes narrowed a little, and his voice escalated slightly.

"She still matters, Ulrich. But she's gone. She's gone and never coming back. It doesn't matter what she would've wanted, because she's not here to want it."

"Odd, what did she say to you before she was taken to the hospital?"

Odd looked at him for a long moment, as if what his wife had said that night was written on Ulrich's face. Then, finally, he sighed and said,

"She said that I was going to be sad for awhile, but I was going to…to find someone else." A stray tear escaped his eye and Odd wiped it away.

"Don't you want to do that? Zephyr's gone, and she's not coming back. I know how close you guys were and everything, but she let go. I think it's time you did, too. She'd hate to see you like this!"

At this Odd stood, a little unsteady with grief but still with a powerful, dignified, and angry stance. His voice started out quiet, forcibly controlled, and then started to grow.

"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I know she's gone, Ulrich? Don't you think I'm reminded of it every single second of my life? She didn't let go, she was pulled away by _him. _He was supposed to love her Ulrich! He was supposed to let her stay here! She'd hate to see me like this, so what! You want to know what she sees right now? She sees nothing, because she's DEAD Ulrich! She's dead and he KILLED her." He pointed to the small brass container sitting idle on the end table, and his form sagged slightly.

"Why is it so hard, Odd? I've seen this happen. My grandparents were just like you and Zephyr were. Then my grandfather died. Sure, my grandmother was devastated…they'd known each other their whole lives. But, sooner than later, she let go and started meeting other people because she knew that's what he'd have wanted." Ulrich smiled, trying to encourage his friend.

"It's not…quite that simple." Odd said, going over to stare out the window with his hands on his pockets. "I, uh, I broke a promise I made to her. When we were teenagers."

"What promise was that?" Ulrich asked. He knew he sounded harsh telling Odd to get over his massive loss, but it had to happen.

"I promised I wouldn't let him hit her again." He whispered, looking more down than out the window.

"That was completely out of your control," Ulrich tried to console his friend, but it failed.

"You don't understand, Ulrich. She looked so…helpless. I could feel every one of her ribs. She was crying. She was scared. I was her only hope. And then…I just watched him hit her again. I didn't do everything I could, Ulrich. I watched her die and stood there with my mouth open like I fool. I broke my promise. What kind of person does that make me?"

"It makes you _human_, Odd." Ulrich told him in a whisper. "You made a mistake. There is no way you could have been expected to not be in shock. But you know, Zephyr loved the outdoors, and the only way you've seen them since she died is walking to your car. Don't you miss that at all?"

"I miss her."

"I know."

And there was a long, sad silence.

"Look, Odd, I have to catch a flight soon. I found this casual dance downtown. It's not one of those nightclubs, just a quiet singles dance. I think you should go." With that Ulrich pulled his grieving buddy into a quick hug, handed him the piece of paper with the dance information on it, and with a "Take care, Buddy. I have to spend time with my family, but if you need me, I'll be here," he made his way to the door.

"That's okay. You stay with your family. I think you've…told me enough." And for the first time in a long, long time, Odd smiled. It was genuine and warm, thankful for his friend's advice.

Ulrich smiled back.

Odd pulled himself back up; he'd sat back down, and went to change into something he could wear to the dance that he was going to go to.

'Maybe,' He thought, 'Maybe Ulrich's right. It's time for me to move on.'

Odd smiled. Ulrich said "let go."

He never said "Forget."

-----------------------------

Sorry for the shortness, but it gets happier in the next chapter. Oh, and Olivia, you get a chapter somewhere in my next story dedicated to you, because you defended me when that loser reviewed "Blitz" and flamed it. You're the coolest!


	18. Riley

**Chapter 18 **

It was a fairly large social gathering. Odd molded with the people sitting at various tables and scanned the room for anyone he knew. Other than some parents from his work, he recognized no one, though on the streets he'd probably walked by them. Had his life been that secluded? Did he really not know _anyone_? He hadn't had a real social life when he was married, though when Zephyr had worked late he'd liked to go out somewhere. She didn't, though, preferring to protect herself via prevention. If she didn't put herself in that situation, she wouldn't get hurt.

There were plenty of attractive women there, and Odd would openly admit it, and he was surprised that he was not especially missing those pale, pale gray eyes. What was even more surprising was that he wasn't ashamed of it either. It wasn't like he didn't _like _Zephyr anymore, it was that he had simply accepted the fact that she wasn't coming back.

Then he saw her.

She stood there, lost and small, shorter than almost everybody else on the dance floor. He'd never seen her on a dance floor before, and she had only been with so many strangers when it became necessary. Still he thought of this rather than the fact that she had died a three years ago. She squeezed through bodies doing ballroom dances, pale eyes constantly searching for him.

He stood and smiled. No one noticed, absorbed with themselves. He took note of but didn't care about the glow around her, or the translucency that made her seem like she was going to fade away completely at any moment. But it wasn't her that faded this time. It was the rest of the world around them. Her bright eyes shone with immortal internal light that was so pure it could not possibly be of this earth. Yet no matter how bright those eyes were, they lit up when she saw him.

"_There _you are, you silly old thing." Her voice had a slight echo. "I've been looking everywhere." Odd couldn't bring himself to say a word. He just held out his hand and she took it, as if she'd simply been away for a week. They stepped up into their waltz.

"I've been watching you." She started off. "And I'm not liking the way that you're acting. You're the fun one, remember? Oddball? That's what I always did love about you. No matter how hard things got were there with a kiss and a smile, never leaving. What happened?"

"You left." He answered softly, melancholy strong and thick in his voice.

"I had no choice, Odd. I couldn't fight anymore. I tried. I thought you knew that."

"I thought so, too."

"Now," She switched subjects smoothly as he spun her. "I won't have anymore of this 'sitting in the dark feeling sorry for myself' stuff. It's time to move on."

Odd was stunned. Didn't she love him anymore? Was that what happened when you died? "But…"

"Buildings burn, people die, but true love is forever. I saw that on television once, or at least read it in a book. Either way, I still love you. But sometimes it's best to let things go if you love them. You've still got years and years ahead of you, Odd. Don't waste them missing me."

As they danced, they'd moved closer and closer to the wall of chairs, where people waited to be asked to dance. One tall and slim woman sat by herself, watching this blond man waltz by himself. Several people stared, some openly glaring at his brazenness.

"So, I guess this is good-bye, huh?" he asked. Strangely, there was no lump in his throat, no tears burning down his face. He felt sort of empty, but nothing hurt so much anymore. Zephyr cast a look over her shoulder, and shook her head with a smile.

"No, just…'see you later.'"

And with that off-kilter smile she was gone, a few sparks of angelic light flickering down to the dance floor to burn out the only thing she left behind. He still had one arm outstretched when the rest of the world came back. He looked in front of him and saw a woman about his age, sitting shyly in a chair, waiting to be asked to dance. She was looking at him, deep sapphire-blue eyes wide with surprise. Could someone this handsome really be asking her to dance? Their stomachs flipped in unison.

"Uh…" Odd stuttered and tripped over his words. Her eyes made his heart pound, and his face went red with embarrassment.

"Yes?" Her voice had the undertone of amusement but the hesitance of hope and astonishment.

"You…uh…may I…have this dance?"

"Certainly." She got up and politely curtseyed, smile growing bigger to reveal straight, white teeth.

Dancing with a stranger is awkward at best. They didn't even know each others' first names, and here they were, his hand on the small of her back, the other holding her own smooth hand, her free hand on his arm. The music changed and they went into a sway, each avoiding the eyes of the other.

"So, uh, what's your name?" Odd asked, finding no better way to break the ice.

"Riley." She kept her smile. "Riley Regen. Yours?" Her accent was as Dutch as her surname.

"Odd Della Robbia." Her smile made him melt and he felt compelled to smile back, so he did so, not quite knowing why. "So, you're Dutch, right?"

"I sure am," She replied. "Full-blooded Dutchwoman straight out of the old country."

Odd then did something he hadn't done in a long time.

He laughed.

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Their conversation went on long after the dance ended as Odd showed Riley the city of Lyon. It wasn't long into their walk that they held hands, unbeknownst to either of them.

"So, you grew up here?" Riley asked at one point.

"Kind of. In seventh grade I started going to the boarding school on the other side of town. That's where I met all of my friends I have today, but they're all in different parts of the world now. One of them was Dutch, as a matter of fact." He smiled again. He couldn't stop smiling. Why couldn't he look casual?

"You ever have anyone special? Like, a girlfriend?"

"I was married once. To a girl I met at school. You would've liked her."

"So you guys are…divorced?"

"She died."

"I'm sorry. Want to talk about it? If you don't I understand."

"That's okay. It's a long, boring story. You probably don't want to hear it."

She laughed again and looked at him. Why did he suddenly feel like kissing her? It was similar to the feeling he remembered when he was a teenager, that impulse to brush away that stray lock of hair. "I spent several summers in Russia growing up. I've read Tolstoy. I like long stories."

So She and Odd found a park bench and he began from the beginning, everything he remembered hearing about Ireland and America. It wasn't hard to tell her for some reason, and his heart lightened. He felt she was truly and sincerely listening to his story, her story, and they were all intertwined together. He told his newfound object of admiration about the time he'd spend with Zephyr on the roof, the times he'd walk her home. He told her what he'd never told Yumi or Ulrich or Jeremie or Aelita. He told her his anger at her for keeping quiet, for not telling him, of his guilt when he found out that he was not able to stop the pain of his friend. He poured out all his emotions to her. All of his sadness, loneliness, depression, heartbreak. He cried in front of his new crush, only his second crush, and was not ashamed. And she'd rub his back and whisper him through it. She'd listen and be quiet or respond and hold conversation in certain parts of the story, somehow knowing which he preferred at that moment, when he was too wrapped up in his own emotions to hear anything, or when he needed a voice to cling to the present. She was perfectly in tune with him already, and he felt the most wonderful he ever had.

It was very early morning when they arrived at Riley's apartment, which was only a couple blocks from his own. Feeling brave, he gave her a fleeting kiss on the cheek. She stepped back, surprised.

"Sorry." He mumbled to his feet, turning red again.

"You missed."

Odd stopped for a moment, remembering a certain night in front of a certain coffee shop.

_Odd gathered up all his courage and kissed her on the cheek, grinning nervously in offering of a meek apology when she slowly faced him._

"_You missed," She said through a smile._

"_Huh?"_

"_Here," She said, once again putting a hand on his shoulder. She turned his face towards hers with the index and middle fingers of her other hand and kissed him, softly, on the lips. Both felt some strange feeling and let go of each other, embarrassed, looking anywhere but each other. But, as love often does, it dragged them together like magnets of opposite poles_

And the scene replayed itself, only the scrawny, harrowed little tomboy was replaced with a slender Dutch beauty with unending sapphire eyes, not dieing pale gray orbs of fright and mistrust. And as they kissed he felt a different feeling. Their lips fit together perfectly, and the kiss was like liquid fire or cool spring water, he couldn't tell. He was still trying to get over the fact that he'd met a better kisser than Zephyr, someone better looking than Zephyr.

"Wow." Was all he said when they pulled away. His hand was still combing its way through her mahogany hair and she smiled, obviously as pleased as he was. His courage returned, he asked, "Do you, uh, want to go somewhere tomorrow?"

"I'd love that," Riley answered immediately, as if she'd been hoping all along, from the moment he asked her to dance. They set up a time and a place and left, and Odd smiled and sang on his way home. If he'd bothered to look back instead of up at the stars he might've seen her, translucent and glowing softly, looking after him, tears running down her face and dripping onto the street after bypassing a sad smile.

"I love you," He might've heard her say.

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The next day they sat in the coffee shop, him showing her the pictures of his late wife. He'd brought the ones used at her memorial, because Riley had asked him to. She picked up the one of her looking into the sun.

"Wow, Odd, she was gorgeous."

He shrugged. "Yeah. Almost as pretty as you."

"Don't slight her for me," Riley said through a smile. She almost always had a smile.

"I'm not. If you could've seen her, Riley. Goodness, she was so pale and ragged and worn. She just looked so tired and emaciated all the time. She wasn't pretty until I fell in love with her."

"She probably just needed love, from the sound of it."

"Yeah."

Odd put the pictures away and held hands across the table and kissed across the table with Riley and they both drank their coffee and life was so good he felt like crying and didn't know why.

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Okay, FINALLY got another chapter up! Sorry I've taken so long, but between school (finals suck), getting my braces off (yay!) and getting a horse (check my homepage) and work (which I start tomorrow) my writing time has lessened. But with Christmas coming up (one-year anniversary of Blitz!) I should have more time. I like this chapter because it's not so…clingy? Something like that. And Odd's suffered enough. So, here you go. Enjoy! I'm trying to finish this up so I can start improving Blitz ASAP. There will probably be one more chapter. Thanks and remember to review!

"Regen" means "Rain" in Dutch.


	19. As it Should Be

Okay guys, I know it's been a long, long time in the making, but I _finally_ have another chapter for you guys.

I'd like to apologize for the wait, but school has been really tough this semester, and horse show season started early this year, and my horse had some issues we had to work through, plus a new golden retriever puppy because my dog of 10 years died.

Anyhow, this is the final installment of "Blitz" and the better, longer parallel will commence production shortly.

On with the end of the end! Took me long enough, eh?

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Odd had changed since his second marriage. There was no real physical difference, save the extremely slight aging that had barely touched him in three years. He kept his hair shorter now, and purple hair gel was no longer on his shopping list. The smile lines on his now tan face had deepened, but there was no smiling at this particular moment.

He paced and worried and several times thought he was going to throw up. The doctors had had just come out of the room where Riley lay in labor with their first child and announced their ultimatum: it was either the cesarean section or the loss of both mother and child. Of course they chose the surgery after little deliberation, but both Odd and Riley were scared to death. Riley had never had a surgery before and Odd hated hospitals as it were.

So he paced, desperately trying to get a grip on himself but finding it impossible to think through his heavy, anxious haze.

"Chill. She'll be fine."The voice came from behind him. The echo behind it made him freeze.

"Z-Zephyr?" He asked, quite unsure. He turned and saw her face almost touching his. Well, touching if she had been physically able to touch him.

"So you remember."

"Of course I remember you, freckleface!" He exclaimed. The receptionist gave him a weird look. Zephyr glanced at her over a ghostly shoulder and motioned for Odd to have a seat in the corner of the waiting room.

"So…she'll be fine?" Odd asked, voice spilling over with trepidation.

"Yes, Odd. They both will. And you too. You and Riley and your children will have many, many happy years together."

"You know this?"

"Of course I do. Do you really think I'd tell you if I wasn't sure?" She smiled at him, and for the first time he felt a little creeped out by her ghostly form.

"How do you know?"

She shrugged and supplied the noncommittal answer of, "I just do. Trust me on this one. So what've you been up to these days?" She tried to change the subject.

"Oh, you know. I, uh, I got remarried, and one thing lead to another and…Here I am, expecting my first biological child."

"Good." Her smile was genuine, and her words were few.

"And what have you been doing?"

"Oh, you know, floating around. Meeting my mother again. Sitting on clouds. That sort of boring thing. It makes me miss life. But that'll be gone soon."

"What do you mean?"

"Soon I will no longer be able to feel emotion. I'll be in Heaven, never allowed to leave, and I'll be watching over my living loved ones. Like you. And Riley. And the others, naturally. I'll still see you, but I won't be able to miss you."

"So you won't come back?"

"That's the way it must be. You need to get on with your life just as I need to fully accept my death. But you see, I won't miss you only because I'll always be with you, cliché as it sounds, in here." She touched his heart where his chest would be.

"I see," He said with a small smile.

Zephyr kept on with the idle chit-chat. She told him about her mother and how she wished she hadn't died so young but things were the way they were. Odd soon got on the subject of his life and his dead friend listened intently because life was a million times better than floating around in empty space and seeing people who'd already died.

"Aidan is…gosh she'd be about eight years old or so, right? Almost nine." Zephyr mused.

"You haven't been keeping track of her?" Odd was immensely shocked.

"I tried, but I wasn't able to find her." Zephyr explained sorrowfully.

"She's doing really well in school. She's been in Scotland since they found a new home for her. She's so smart. It's amazing how eloquent her speech is, especially for an eight-year-old."

"So she writes you?" Zephyr asked.

"Yup. When she was confirmed, when she got a new home, every birthday, every Christmas. It's just sad that I can't see her again for a few years. Those stupid adoption agency regulations are worthless."

"Most of them are. But taking a child from a truly unsuitable home is a wonderful thing to do. Perfectly splendid in my case, perfectly faulted in Aidan's."

Odd continued talking to this apparition and the receptionist was about to call the psyche department, but the doctors came through the doors and asked him inside.

Riley was stitched up, but in her arms was a newborn so beautiful his heart melted. He turned to share his joy with his deceased first wife, but there was nothing there again. She'd vanished.

"Is something wrong, Odd?" Riley asked, looking up from the infant in her arms.

"No, it was…It was nothing. I just thought I heard something, that's all. Can I hold him…her? Wait, is it a boy or a girl?"

"A girl," Riley beamed. Odd gently took the sleeping child from his wife and smiled. He didn't usually like the look of babies, but this one was different because it was his legacy, his blood, his flesh, combined with that of the woman he loved most in the world. "She needs a name," He said finally.

"Do you have one in mind?"

"Well, sort of…" He trailed off.

"Does it start with a "z" by any chance, hmm?" She partly teased him, but knew the seriousness of the subject.

"Nah. How about…Àine. It's Irish."

"I like it. It sounds exotic to me," Riley exclaimed.

"You choose her middle name, it's only fair…" Odd continued on excitedly, becoming animated but holding his newborn with the utmost care.

Through the hospital room's window, Zephyr watched. No tears found her face, only a smile. She knew he hadn't forgotten, but she knew he wouldn't think about her half as much from now on.

As it should be.

And there, outside the hospital, Zephyr gave her Odd one last glance, and with the slightest of breezes, disappeared.

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Okay, the ending sucked, but you get the picture. I can't wait to revamp this! I've been working on it for a long, long time.


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